Instagram (Mostly) Going Back to Its Old Privacy Policy
Remember when tech companies changed things and didn't listen to all of the people complaining about it? Those days are long gone, apparently. Instagram is reverting back to their old Terms of Service, the company announced in a blog post Thursday evening.
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There was a huge uproar over Instagram changing their Terms of Service. The company said Wednesday they were listening to complaints. Well, they listened and now they're just going back to the old terms, for the most part. "Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work," Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote Thursday evening.
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The part of their new terms that angered most people seemed to say Instagram could sell your photos to advertisers without permission. That part is gone, too. "You also had deep concerns about whether under our new terms, Instagram had any plans to sell your content. I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don’t own your photos – you do," Systrom said.
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So we're out fo the woods, right? Everyone should be happy now, right? Wrong. Instagram still has to try and incorporate advertising, somehow. The Verge's Bryan Bishop says the company probably won't backtrack next time because these were preemptive of Instagram incorporating ads:
Instagram isn't going to stop pursuing advertising, however. Systrom's statement makes it clear that the company is going to continue to develop new products in that arena — but that it will come to users with a fully-developed product in hand that it can clearly explain, rather than baking in protection for future approaches into its TOS.
Until that happens, things will remain the same. Someone tell Kim Kardashian she can stop worrying about quitting Instagram.
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