I’ve said it before, Instagram is one of my favourite photography apps. It’s safe to say I love it, and judging from my Instagram profile page, it ranks right up there with Pinterest on the GigaMom addiction scale.
Not long ago I even glowed about how happy Instagram had made me when they actually listened to their users and created profile pages.
But last week my GigaMom spidey senses went off when suddenly Instagram pulled its photo integration from Twitter, and today I’m finding myself with a very large cup of coffee in front of me, as I read the new Instagram privacy and terms of service that was recently changed and has a lot of people up in arms. This new policy takes place January 16, 2013 and are all a part of Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram so the two platforms can share information more easily.
Going straight to Instagram itself, and their blog post published December 17th I saw that they put the “good news” out there first. Thank you for breaking it to me gently, Instagram.....
Here are a few key updates, word-for-word from their blog post:
"Nothing has changed about your photos’ ownership or who can see them. Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used. Our updated terms of service help protect you, and prevent spam and abuse as we grow."
Then they suggested that you go over to read the actual terms of service, which they themselves admit are a bit dry. For that, I appreciate their honesty, and before I read all of the posts that screamed out “Instagram is stealing my photos and I’m deleting my account!!!!” I read the full policy.
It took me two cups of coffee with a splash of festive Bailey’s, but I did it. Here’s what I found out:
Section 3 is the area that everyone needs to read. It says very clearly who they are going to share your information with, and I think that Instagram users need to understand and accept what they are doing here, because it’s important. What it tells me is that they are clearing the way for a much deeper content integration with Facebook, and the Instagram/Facebook machine wants to use your photos without you having any control over them at all.
Of particular interest: “Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates’ own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences). But these Affiliates will honor the choices you make about who can see your photos.”
Essentially, Instagram is saying that it has the perpetual right to sell users' photographs without payment or notification. This new policy takes effect on January 16th, 2013 and unless Instagram users delete their accounts before the January deadline, they cannot opt out.
Sharon put it perfectly:
Instagrams new policy is essentially, you better watch out, you better not cry, we're using your photos that we don't have to buy
— SharonDV (@SharonDV) December 18, 2012
This news today makes me sad. Instagram is one of my fave apps on my phone and I have loved using it as part of my life every day. But after this news today, I am doing what many others are, making sure I have saved all of my Instagram photos to my own computer, and putting a reminder on the calendar to delete my Instagram account BEFORE January 16, 2013.
I’m also crossing Instagram off my Christmas card list. They are definitely on the naughty list now.
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