Do DeviantART do anything with your art without asking you first?

... No.

If, and only if, DeviantART would like to use your art in one or another way, they, by rule of thumps, ask you first if you're ok with it. The logic behind their rule is that they could use your art to graphics on their site (such as banners) or magazines with examples of art on their site without having to put focus on the artist than on DeviantART as a site itself.

The amount of artists that are complaining about this rule is absurd - You get free space for hosting as many pictures as you like in a nice design and including a nice communication system in trade for this. They are not part of a conspiracy. They are not trying to hurt anyone. If they did, they would lose their good artists very, very fast. Sites like that require trust for master pieces to be uploaded.

Examples include the 'Daily Ordinary Devotion' feature, when your devotion is selected, your devotion also gets a comment congratulating you but also offering you not be part of such a feature (from which you would be removed *immidately*).