Instagram has announced a new Terms of Service, and the terms, not surprisingly, offer users few rights over their photos.
Under the new agreement, Instagram can share information about users with parent company Facebook, as well as outside affiliates and advertisers. It can use your image or any of your photos in advertisements without your consent, as well as anyone you've posted a photo of using the service.
The Guardian adds:
The new Instagram clause notes that "some or all of the service may be supported by advertising revenue" and says that, as a result, "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."
That means that Instagram photos could be used in advertising, without reference to the owner, with all the payments going to Instagram. There is no opt-out from that use except to stop using the service and to delete your photos.
But Dan Catt, who worked on the early development of Flickr – one of the first photo-sharing services online – pointed out on Twitter that any pictures which included recognisable people would require explicit permission in the form of a "model release" from Instagram to the advertiser seeking to use it, which might be impossible to grant.
Of course, the calls for boycott have begun.
Will the new Terms of Service be affecting your use of Instagram?
