Today (March 2017), the terms read: "
When you scan a document, you agree that 3 months after completion of your scan, we will automatically upload your essay to our student essays database." These terms were changed somewhere between Dec 2016 and March 2017 (ie. within the last few months). See the screenshots:
What's most troubling is that they have NOT changed the legally-crucial '
terms last revised' date, while changing the terms at the same time. Since 2012, the terms state:
Terms last revised: 9th January 2012- despite the fact, as proven above, the terms have been updated multiple times since Jan 2012.
Now, let's go through the ordering process on UKEssays.com in relation to their plagiarism scanner. On their 'Guarantees' page they state: "
Every piece of work we deliver comes with a dedicated plagiarism report using Viper [ScanMyEssay], our bespoke plagiarism scanner." That means,
each 'custom essay' ordered from them is bound by the Viper/ScanMyEssay's terms. Consequently, each 'custom written essay' written by UKEssays becomes public (available through Google/Bing search) within 3 months of delivery. Is this what students who pay 1.5-5 times more than they would have paid elsewhere expect? Probably not. I can imagine smart professors assigning a writing project at start of a term/course and then using a simple Google search to find the 'custom written essay' there. It would be even worse / riskier with big orders like dissertations that sometimes take up to a year to be checked and approved.
How do they explain the reasons for publicizing their 'custom-written papers' within 3 months of purchase? Here it goes: "
.. we will automatically upload your essay to our student essays database which will appear on one of our network of websites so that other students may use it to help them write their own essays." So, at first, it may seem their reasons are philanthropic.. until you realize it is baloney. By writing AND uploading the written content (originally sold to a student 3 months ago as '100% original') on their website, they kill two birds with one stone. First - they get paid a lot of money for the original content (which they
rent to a student for 3 months). Second - they don't have to pay professional website content writers to keep their website updated (Google and Bing rank websites that regularity publish content higher than those that don't). In result, if a student pays $50 per page, their REAL revenue per page is closer to $60-70 (assuming they would have to pay at least $10-$20 per page of original website content).
It is fascinating to watch a 'non-foreign' company trying all the tricks in the world to mislead/outsmart/con/you-name-it their own customers. In the last decade or so the negative focus was on 'foreign services' that scam and steal from students and writers. However, at this point, I'm not sure which ones are actually the 'leaders' in this area.
