Instagram Responds to Policy Backlash

12.19.2012 · by Jaye Bryant · in 2 Cents, Featured, In The Media. ·

Instagram updated its privacy policy a couple of days ago and INSTANTLY got backlash, from users and the media alike. Why you ask? Instagram decided to broaden the language in the policy, making many things possible. The biggest of these issues being IG’s ability to sell pictures to third-party sites and companies without user consent. Waves of confusion and anger hit the media and airways, with everyone from everyday users to celebrities voicing their dismay.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom responded to the backlash with a post on the company’s blog saying…

Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. 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.

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience.

2 Cents: You guys don’t REALLY think they were going to get away with this, right? The instant backlash from the first policy proves that if the plan was, in fact, to pimp everyone’s photos out to the world, they’d have to change it up. We’ve got enough privacy issues as it is dealing with everyday things. I wouldn’t want an app being the next thing on my list of 99 problems, because currently, a b***h ain’t one.