WeTransfer’s New Terms Let Them Use Your Game Assets — Even Under NDA

What game devs, publishers, PR teams, and creatives need to know before August 8

WeTransfer is making a significant change to its Terms of Service that may impact how safe it is to share your work — especially if you’re handling pre-release game builds, press kits, or confidential materials. These new terms go into effect on August 8, 2025, and they grant the company sweeping rights over user-uploaded content. Developers handling builds should also see our guide to labeling builds before sharing them.

What the new Terms say

According to Section 6.3 of WeTransfer’s updated Terms of Service, the company receives a royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, publicly display, distribute, and even sublicense your content. That includes everything you upload — from videos and images to sound files and text documents.

The terms also allow WeTransfer to use this content to “develop, improve, and commercialize” its services, including training AI models.

AI training included — confirmed

As confirmed by El País:

“These machine learning models refer to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The company wants to be able to train its AI with all the videos, photos and texts managed by the platform. The change was introduced at the end of June, but will not come into effect until August 8.”

That means anything uploaded — even under embargo or NDA — could be processed, analyzed, and used to power WeTransfer’s future tech, including commercial tools or AI features.

Why this matters to developers, publishers, and PR agencies

In the gaming industry, WeTransfer is often used to share early builds, trailers, screenshots, pitch decks, and press materials. For PR teams, embargoed files are regularly sent this way — assuming the service is secure and hands-off. But this change introduces real risk to anything shared across it, especially during pre-awareness and launch planning stages.

There is no opt-out. If you continue using WeTransfer after August 8, you automatically accept the new terms.

What you should do now

• Do not use WeTransfer for embargoed, NDA-bound, or unreleased materials.
• Use encrypted files (e.g., password-protected ZIPs) if you must send anything sensitive.
• Switch to safer alternatives that do not include AI usage or commercialization in their terms.

Safer file-sharing alternatives

Here are a few options that respect your privacy and don’t grant themselves blanket rights over your files:

• Proton Drive – End-to-end encrypted cloud storage and sharing from the creators of ProtonMail.
• Sync.com – Canadian-based zero-knowledge file sharing with GDPR compliance.
• SwissTransfer – Free, no-login transfer tool backed by Swiss privacy regulations.
• FileMail – Large file transfers with no AI training clauses in their terms.

Editor’s Note

Personally, this is just messed up. I’ve used WeTransfer for years — to send songs I’ve produced, soundbites, unfinished writing, and creative ideas while working online with others. That’s more than data — it’s my art, my thoughts, my time, my work.

As someone who also deals with press materials, dev builds, and content under embargo — this change is unacceptable. I almost didn’t believe it when I first heard, but I trust the sources and I’ve seen the terms myself. This isn’t an exaggeration.

For devs, publishers, PR teams — for anyone in this creative ecosystem — this is a problem. If you’re sharing anything not meant for public consumption, this clause puts it at risk. I wouldn’t use WeTransfer for anything confidential going forward. And honestly, I won’t use it at all.

There are safer tools out there, and yes, some of them cost money. But if that’s the price to protect what we make, I’ll pay. That’s an easy decision.

This article reflects the Terms of Service and publicly available information as of July 2025. If WeTransfer updates their policies or clarifies their stance further, I’ll follow up with an update here.

Stay human.

Read the Terms sometimes — not everyone will tell you what you’ve just clicked “accept” on.

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