Good Guy Instagram Listens And Changes Privacy Policy Again
After the huge uproar yesterday at the privacy policy changes that were going to change the way Instagram could use your photos, the service amended their ToS again. After a grueling 24-hours of users closing their Instagram accounts and continuing their outrage, Instagram responds.
In a blog post submitted recently Instagram tries to calm the nerves of the nervous Instagram users and set things straight. The post tries to clarify what Instagram was trying to do with the new changes and what their real goal was when making these changes. It seems the press and everyone else misinterpreted what Instagram was trying to accomplish with these changes. With all of the legal talk being thrown around in privacy policies, it’s easy to confuse certain terms.
From the start, Instagram was created to become a business. Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram.
We can all agree with Instagram here, everyone likes to make money to keep the service running. Unfortunatly nothing is free and Instagram needs to make money to cover the costs to their servers, employees, and other expenses. By taking out this clause it allowed them to experiment with advertisements fo help fund this very popular service.
Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.
This shouldn’t have been a concern and something that the press decided to blow way out of proportion. This part of the privacy policy was never changed. People only thought this changed because Instagram said they would USE the photos that you might have taken. They weren’t taking ownership of them.
Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.
Again, nothing wrong here. Instagram wanted to figure out how to raise money without the standard advertisement ways. See, they still value quality and a good app expirence. Instagram is a big company and is trying to look out for its users, periodically they much change wording as to continue with their experimentation and development, this is standard for any company.
We never made this Instagram fiasco a bigger deal than it actually was, certain press sites decided to make it feel like the world was ending. Have a little faith in the sites that you like and remember you’re using a free service and you never ever get something for free.
