Instagram says it won't sell your pics; will amend terms

Facebook-owned photo sharing app Instagram is easing fears that it will sell people's photos on to other corporations.

Yesterday the company revised its terms of use and privacy policy, leading to assumptions that people's photos could be sold on to other companies and later used in their advertising material, with no compensation to the original copyright holder.

Instagram posted an urgent blog seeking to clarify the situation, saying that the wording in the terms was unclear.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom used the word "clear" six times in the blog post. He wrote: "To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear."

Systrom added that Instagram was a business. "We envision a future where both users and brands alike may promote their photos and accounts to increase engagement and to build a more meaningful following." He gave the example of a business seeking to promote itself on Instagram. "It would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business." This is similar to the sponsored stories that already happen on Facebook, but you're allowed to opt out from your name showing up next to these business associations. There does not seem to be a similar opt-out clause on Instagram.

It seems surprising that Instagram (that is, Facebook) was not prepared for the backlash to come -- and perhaps it was already bracing itself for it. Cynics may say the whole thing was a publicity stunt; designed to get the company back in the news. Certainly, Facebook has not been immune to this kind of behavior. Back in 2009 (see our article, "Facebook backtracks on terms of service"), The Consumerist blog posted about Facebook's revised terms which could have been interpreted to mean that Facebook had the right to all of your content, forever, even if you closed your account. After the public outcry, Facebook then reverted to its old terms of service while it sought to reword the terms and make things a little more unambiguous. (It also started a new group asking for input from users called the Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which no longer exists.)