Microsoft's age-guessing site says it doesn't keep your photos — sort of

The viral Microsoft site designed to guess your age, How Old Do I Look, may have a down side: keeping your photos in the company's product ecosystem.

Some users have noticed that despite the site's front-page message saying, "We don't keep the photo [uploaded to the site]," its terms of service suggest something different.

Following a sentence declaring that "Microsoft does not claim ownership of any materials you provide," a subsequent passage in the site's terms of service reveals an important caveat:

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.

But that's not all. Its terms of service also includes the right for Microsoft to "publish your name in connection with your Submission; and to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Website Services."

IMAGE: MICROSOFT

The messages appear to directly conflict with each other: One promises that Microsoft won't keep your photos, while the other states quite clearly that you are giving Microsoft permission to use them.

When contacted by Mashable, a Microsoft spokesperson explained the apparent discrepancy.

"How-old.net does not store or share the pictures," the spokesperson said. "The terms of service are accurate.Developers get to choose how their apps work. The developers of How-old.net chose not to store or share photos for this app. These terms of services are like those of other companies."

In other words, How Old Do I Look doesn't intend to store your photos, but its terms of service give Microsoft the right to handle anything uploaded to the site should it see fit.

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