“We’re going to take a step back, and not just think about machine learning and what that means for us, but also think about how we can express our approach to privacy in the most clear way possible,” Andrew Malcolm, Evernote’s senior VP of marketing, told Fast Company. “So users can have confidence that we’re as committed to privacy as we’ve ever been, but also understand how we do that.”

“We screwed up, and I want to be really clear about that,” says Evernote CEO Chris O’Neill. “This was not from a root of anything but good intentions.”

“The headlines that are being written just aren’t true,” he adds. “Human beings don’t read notes without people’s permission. Full stop.”

O’Neill says that Evernote employees will only access notes when users expressly ask for support help with an issue, or when Evernote has been compelled to share notes with law enforcement. Users’ notes may also be viewed while they’re participating in beta tests of new features, but only with users’ express permission, and only after they have chosen to be part of the beta-testing process.