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.)

Facebook-owned Instagram can sell your photos

Your photos could be sold and displayed for commercial purposes, if sweeping changes to photo-sharing site Instagram's terms and conditions go ahead.

The hugely popular photo app, which was acquired by Facebook earlier this year, has announced some major changes to its terms of use and privacy policy which come into effect on January 16.

The specific addition in the updated terms and conditions in regards to this is pretty straightforward. It reads:

"To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

Let's break that statement down a little.

Say you go on a trip and take photos of your hotel room, your meal or even yourself sunbathing by the poolside. Potentially, the hotel could pay Instagram/Facebook for the use of those photos, and display them on their own website or marketing material -- with no financial compensation to you.

Where the terms of service talks about metadata, this specifically means the information stored in the photograph that identify the time, the GPS co-ordinates (ie the exact location; unless location services are turned off), the phone used and more besides (like keywords used to tag the photo).

Your likeness, is of course, your photo. So who knows, a photo of yourself in your bikini drinking a particular beverage could be plastered on a billboard by the drink manufacturer. (This may well run foul of privacy laws, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the small print that suggests this kind of thing couldn't happen somewhere down the line.)

No doubt that as this story hits the news, disgruntled users will cry foul and Instagram/Facebook may well water down the terms and conditions -- they could at the very least, make this clause something you're able to opt-out of.

In another worrying development, Instagram also says:

"You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such."

This could be in breach of advertising codes of practice, which state that such content should clearly be identified as such.

Sources: For more on this, check out the Cnet article about the topic as well as the new Instagram terms of use and privacy policy.