Instagram giveth and Instagram taketh away!
Just a couple of weeks ago we all got very excited about being able to see our Instagram profiles on a real website like this: http://instagram.com/theblogstudio! No longer were we looking at bad attachments to tweets and searching through Facebook feeds to see what people had posted when our phones weren’t in our hands. We could pull up profiles on a real computer screen and look at photos in a full size. It was a great change that was rolled out well with people checking daily to see if their profile had been set up in the new format. We checked it with more interest than we had our Klout scores!
But now we’re all up in arms about the new Terms of Service that Instagram has rolled out. If you haven’t seen the new TOS, check them out right here. The issue that most people are having starts at point #1 under the heading of Rights.
Instagram giveth and Instagram taketh away!
“Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service…”
The new addition to the Instagram legal fineprint is very similar to the wording that Facebook currently uses, “you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook…” which isn’t really all that surprising since Facebook bought Instagram in April of 2012.
Here are some of the opinions being expressed via Twitter today:
If you have a gmail account, a Facebook account or a twitter account and have today deleted your Instagram account, you are misinformed.
— kerry morrison (@kmore) December 18, 2012
#Instagram will now be able to use anyone's photos in ads? Without consent? Come on! Is there another photo app people recommend?
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) December 18, 2012
Only way to opt out of @instagram selling your photos is deleting your account, sounds good to us. #BoycottInstagram
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) December 18, 2012
And here is Instagram’s official statement via Twitter:
We've heard you that the updates to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Service are raising a lot of questions. We'll have more to share very soon
— Instagram (@instagram) December 18, 2012
The new terms of service will take effect on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 and already we are starting to see people announce that they will be or have already deleted their accounts. These actions and responses are nothing new to social media and once again, only time will be able to tell us what long-term effect this will have on Instagram’s business plan and bottom line.
So, are you keeping your Instagram account or are you deleting it and going to another service like Flickr (which has a new app available now) – We’d love to know!
Edit: A blog post was written by Instagram co-founder, Kevin Systrom and posted just before 5pm EST on Tuesday to address the concerns of Instagram users. Read it HERE
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12.18.12 at 8:59 pm
Jason Carlin (@the2scoops)
For now, I’m recommending people to investigate Flickr’s new app – they’ve always been more transparent on user rights than most. I’m waiting to see Instagram’s response on their TOS as it’s murky and caused this social media panic. I was already annoyed at some of the changes they’ve recently made, and I wouldn’t mind if a mass of users leaving made other companies reconsider clarity in their TOS agreements.
As it stands, I hope it’s a wake-up call to users of social media that nothing “free” is actually free when our information is a commodity.
12.21.12 at 3:23 pm
Josh
Jason, thanks for your thoughts! The option of going to other apps is always something that users should always keep in mind. And, “As it stands, I hope it’s a wake-up call to users of social media that nothing “free” is actually free when our information is a commodity.” is right on the money!
Yesterday Instagram did post a blog entry announcing that they are reverting to previous TOS and would be looking at how they “would like for our advertising business to work” Check it out here: http://ow.ly/ghVZv