Responding to a maelstrom of criticism, Instagram announced today that they plan to withdraw the proposed Terms of Use changes that sparked outrage across the internet yesterday. According to co-founder Kevin Systrom, Instagram never had any intent to monetize user photos without fairly compensating the photographer, and they are working to revise the TOU wording in a manner that is less confusing and less likely to start a another protest/boycott. Ironically, other sources have pointed out that the outrage was ill-informed at the start, and as things are wont to do on the Internet, spun out of control, perhaps unfairly so for Instagram.
It would seem that Instagram has always had the right (according to their current TOU) to monetize your content, and that the withdrawn change actually narrowed the rather broad terms users agreed to previously. I’d publish a full mea culpa on this, but the point of my previous article was more to point out the icky terms governing the use of photos that contain minors, as well as the very vague terms that assume minors are using Instagram with implicit parental consent. I understand it’s hard to police the use of free apps, especially when parents are noticeably absent with respect to knowing what their kids are doing on their personal media devices, but that seems like a cop out.
What this means for you:
My stance on the exploitation of minors for profit still stands: It’s icky. If you are a company like Instagram that is bound to feature content containing images of minors, you need to be much more careful how you glad-handle parents. As for jumping on the rage bandwagon yesterday:
Dear Instagram,
I’m sorry for assuming you suddenly became evil. You aren’t evil, but maybe you were too cavalier with your current Terms of Use, and you let too much of your Facebook allegiance shine through in your proposed changes. Please don’t be icky, and please don’t treat your users like a prize crop, even though they may act exactly as that. I’m sorry I didn’t take the time to read your lengthy and lawyered-up TOU to find out the truth that you had us by the throat from the get go, and I’m even more sorry that we willingly (through our own ignorance/apathy) let you.
The eagle-eyed internet has caught another dotcom company looking to cash in on its popularity (and recent integration with Facebook): starting on Jan 16, 2013, Instagram will be using a new Terms of Service agreement that allows it to use any content posted publicly to its service for marketing purposes.
“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.”
Also important: this not only applies to users who have an account with Instagram, but also anyone’s likeness that appears in a user’s publicly posted photos can also be used as such. Wait, we’re not done: if you are a minor and you’ve accepted the new TOU, you acknowledge that your parent/guardian is aware of the TOU and tacitly accepts the above.
What this means for you:
If you aren’t in the business of making money off your likeness, or your subjects aren’t celebrities, or if you don’t care that Instagram/Facebook might make some money off your own likeness, then carry on. However, if you happen to care how your children’s likeness may be exploited, you may want to ask any snap-happy smartphone users to not post pictures of your children onto Instagram, or at minimum, make them aware of these TOU changes. You may be surprised at how many people aren’t aware of Instagram’s control over the content they think they own, and doubly surprised at the number of people who don’t care that they may be providing profit for company’s that provide free services.
Last week, Facebook opened up a vote on its usage and terms policies that included in the changes the removal of user pivilege of voting on future changes to said policy. In order for the user vote to be binding, 30% of Facebook’s user population (approximately 300 million users) needed to cast a vote in either direction. In the “Surprising No One” column, only 700,000 votes were cast (about .06% of the total population), and even though the vote was overwhelmingly against the changes, Facebook only needs to take that result under advisement, in other words, “Thanks for your opinion, we’ll do what we want.”
What this means for you:
Most of Facebook’s user base probably had no idea they had any influence over the policies that affect how they use, and are used by, Facebook, who went so far as to notify everyone about the upcoming vote via email. Even though they provided an easy to use link, an even easier to use app to vote (you didn’t even need to leave the confines of Facebook!), most of the world couldn’t be bothered to care about this change. It’s true, as mentioned in my previous article on this, Facebook allowing its userbase to weigh in on policy change is extremely unusual. As a result of the lack of interest, Facebook will become like the thousands of other internet companies who make changes to their terms of use without asking their users permission, and internet citizen self-governance takes another step backwards in favor of convenience and “free” services.