Instagram’s slightly disconcerting and perplexing new terms of use upset a fair few users yesterday, because the update could theoretically allow their images to be used by advertisers without their knowledge. Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, was quick to respond to the cries of his users after the proposed policy changes went public, saying that his team is going to remove the language about how users’ photos can be used as adverts, and explaining that the new rules are actually more for matching a user’s actions (such as following an account) to paid promoted ads.
No ad to show here.
“In order to help make a more relevant and useful promotion, it would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business. In this way, some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business,” Systrom said in the reply.
But it seems that many users are still resistant to the changes, even though it has been made very clear that Instagram cannot and will not sell your photos. It is going to take a lot for Instagram to garner some dignity after this little hiccup.
Many Instagram users, including the official National Geographic account, have been ditching the photo service in favour of other image sharing services, most notably Flickr, which exerts no claims of ownership over its users photos. The switch to Flickr has been made easier with a new service called Freethephotos. The service is fairly simple: users log into their Instagram and Flickr accounts on the same page and migration is done directly.
Flickr must surely be smiling all the way to the… uhm… data banks.
