Instagram updated its privacy policy and terms of service announcement on Monday with major changes that have caused many users to be up in lo-fi arms. The new policy allows the company to share information about its users with Facebook (which makes sense seeing as Facebook owns Instagram) and outside affiliates, use your pictures without your knowledge or with payment to you, stipulates that underage users aren’t exempt, and ads don’t have to be labeled as ads. Don’t want to take part in any of these new “services” and would like a way to opt out? Too bad. The only way to opt out is to completely delete your account. Your escape from Instagram isn’t as simple as deleting your account though. In the very first bullet under General Conditions of Instagram’s policy, appears this:
You can deactivate your Instagram account by logging into the Service and completing the form available here: https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/. If we terminate your access to the Service or you use the form detailed above to deactivate your account, your photos, comments, likes, friendships, and all other data will no longer be accessible through your account (e.g., users will not be able to navigate to your username and view your photos), but those materials and data may persist and appear within the Service (e.g., if your Content has been reshared by others).
So, while Wired and CNET may have explained how to download all of your Instagram pictures and shut down your account, what’s missed is that Instagram retains the rights to use your pictures however it wants, whether your account remains active or not. The new privacy and terms of service changes won’t go into effect until January 16, 2013, leaving with you plenty of time to delete all of your pictures of food, feet, pets, clouds, and parties one by one. If you want a way to delete all of your Instagram pictures at once and trust that you know how to use PHP class well enough, try contacting Lonnie at Lonnie Knows Everything who claims to have created a(n illegal) way to do that very thing.
Wil Wheaton, known more today for his prolific internet presence (Wil Wheaton Dot Net, TableTop Games, Radio Free Burrito, and his Tumbler and Twitter accounts to name a few) and his role as Sheldon’s nemesis on The Big Bang Theory than as Wesly Crusher on Start Trek: The Next Generation, said the following about Instragram’s upcoming policy.
So Instagram is now going to use photos taken by its users in advertising, and they may or may not disclose to viewers when the advertising is happening.I have no idea how this will work, and I’m once again glad that I don’t use Instagram… but I know a lot of people who do, and many of those people are celebrities to some degree. Here’s what I’m wondering: if Kaley Cuoco uses Instagram to share a photo of her and Melissa Rauch doing something silly, does that mean that Instagram can take that photo and use it to advertise for something silly without compensating them for what becomes a use of their likeness for commercial purposes? I can see that being a pretty serious shitstorm if it happens.This sort of dovetails with another concern I have about the automatic opt-in nature of much of our digital life: if I’m in someone’s address book, and they use an app that grants the developer full, unfettered access to their address book, I’ve now had my information given without my consultation or consent to a developer, and I never even knew it was happening.
Just as we have a “do not track” option for our webbrowsing habits, we’re going to need to have something similar for other aspects of our increasingly-digital lives: from contact information to our location to moving and still images of ourselves. Because it’s no long [sic] enough for me to be careful with my opt-ins and online sharing; now I have to ensure that every single person around me is careful, as well.
It looks like Instagram is breaking Wheaton’s Law. Don’t be a dick, Instagram.
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