You Could End Up in Ad by Using Microsoft Age Robot

Age-guessing tool's terms of service may surprise you
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 2, 2015 7:33 AM CDT
You Could End Up in Ad by Using Microsoft Age Robot
Newser editor J. Gidman. Real age at the time this photo was taken: 19.   (How-Old.net)

Sure, it's fun to upload your photo to Microsoft's new age-guessing tool and laugh as it guesses you're 96. But by doing so, you might someday end up in a Microsoft ad, Fast Company reports. Twitter user Brandon Wall recently pointed out, "fyi this is what you agree to by uploading your photo to http://how-old.net" and included a screenshot of the site's terms and conditions. A sample of the legalspeak:

  • "However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing, or submitting your Submission, you are granting Microsoft, its affiliated companies, and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses (including, without limitation, all Microsoft services), including, without limitation, the license rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, and reformat your Submission; to publish your name in connection with your Submission; and to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Website Services."

That basically means you could be used in an ad or on a Microsoft website, Fast Company helpfully translates. Microsoft built How-Old.net on its Microsoft Azure cloud platform, and the terms of service are from that platform—because the site was built there, all photos uploaded to the site would be subject to the TOS. "Will Microsoft use all those faces in an ad?" writes David Lumb. "Probably not, but it's a possibility." (More Microsoft stories.)

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