On December 17th, Instagram announced that in 30 days they would enact a new Terms of Service, and offered a few choice nuggets for what was different from the old ToS. Within hours, news had spread across the Internet that Instagram was suddenly going to start using all our images for ads and stories, and that they had the right to sell our content to third parties. While this actually isn’t new, Instagram has had the right to use our content all along, this sudden revelation has created a firestorm of backlash for the photo sharing network owned by Facebook. Users are complaining loudly, discussing the issue on blogs and social networks, and getting mainstream news coverage.
This afternoon, Instagram responded, on Twitter of all places, with this somewhat cryptic Tweet:
We’ve heard you that the updates to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Service are raising a lot of questions. We’ll have more to share very soon
— Instagram (@instagram) December 18, 2012
They have since written and posted a new blog entry to address some of the concerns being raised.
According to co-founder Kevin Systrom, “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.”
The post goes on to explain that users own their own content and have always had the option to make their content completely private.
What do you think? Has Instagram restored your faith, or will you delete your account like so many others?