Instagram: Your Policies Still Confuse Us!

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Wow, Instagram! Lots of unpleasant backlash floating around the internet right now about your new privacy policies and terms of service. 

And it appears you’ve been listening. And you score points for that. However...

A blog post was recently published (December 18, 2012 around 2PM Pacific) by Kevin Systrom co-founder, Instagram in an effort to make things right with the adoring public. Titled “Thank you, and we’re listening” in short, it’s a clarification of sorts.

This may not be the cozy cup of hot tea we were looking for though. A few excerpts:

"… we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion." (that’s what it is? Confusion?)

"As we review your feedback and stories in the press, we’re going to modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos." (that sounds fair)

"Instagram was created to become a business." (have no problem with that!) 

"…it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation."
"To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos." (wouldn't you rather see this worded as “we are not going to be selling your photos” instead?)

"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…" (we should be asking: WILL you have plans at some point?)

"Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos." 

Yes, you OWN your own content. However, in the world of social media, it gets shared. Lots of individuals share other folk’s content. 

From what I’ve seen on the internet in various social networking sites, people are leaving Instagram or at least thinking about it in droves. I’ve already quit it and gone crawling back myself (and I’m really not sure that I NEED to be on Instagram). 

Do I like how Instagram “cubes” your photos? Sure. However, having an app that watermarks photos does nothing here. The watermark gets chopped right off if you are trying to upload an existing photo on your phone. If anyone knows how to resolve this let's hear it!

And I DO think it’s a good idea to watermark your photos if you are concerned about Instagram using your pics (even though they’re trying to say they won’t do that, let’s face it, the wording is fuzzy).

At the moment, I’m still on Instagram and still pondering what I’ll do. What will YOU do? Stay on Instagram? Why, or why not?

Oh, and for those of you who are unaware, Instagram belongs to Facebook! Get the picture at our website, or say hi on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.