I needed to post this blog as soon as I heard about it!
Instagram (owned by Facebook) has updated its privacy policy, so they can sell your photos to advertisers without contacting you! Users cannot opt out, unless you delete your account before 16th January 2013
Back in April Facebook purchased Instagram for $1bn.
“Eventually we’ll figure out a way to monetise Instagram” Carolyn Everson (FB vice-president of global marketing solutions) said previously in Dec (2012)
“To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you,”
Instagrams notice to change its privacy policy reads “We may share your information as well as information from tools like cookies, log files, and device identifiers and location data with organisations that help us provide the service to you… (and) third-party advertising partners.”
Well, it looks like Facebook have figured out how to get back some of the $1bn it spent, by selling your photographs and information! As a photographer, I find this very disturbing I should be in control of my copyright, on my photographs. Just because I upload them on a social network site does not give that site rights to my work. Instagram has been seen as a useful and creative program.
However, I will be deleting my account as soon as I have finished writing this post.
Since I originally posted about this Instagram have come out saying that they have no plans to sell users photos. However, the privacy policy is so ambiguous that they could! I’m not willing to take that risk, so I have deleted my account.
Personally I think this is Instagram back-tracking after so many people deleted their accounts.