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Instagram's New Terms Of Use Causes Outrage

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Bangalore,India: When Instagram decided to publish its updated terms of use, it probably didn't expect an outcry, but that's exactly what has happened! Set

to become effective on January 16,2013, one policy change in particular has upset many users.









On the official page of Instagram, the new condition of use that is causing distress is “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.”(Src: http://bit.ly/WiYRk4) In order to support their business strategy of earning advertising revenue,

Instagram is stating that you are implicitly granting permission for them to use your content on sponsored content! The outrage among the community has

pushed Instagram to respond through a blog post, where Instagram's co-founder Kevin Systrom, says that “ 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.” Systrom also adds in the post that “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 and

because of that we're going to remove the language that raised the question.” As the furore over privacy on the internet rages, the co-founder also

clarified that “Nothing has changed about the control you have over who can see your photos. If you set your photos to private, Instagram only shares your

photos with the people you've approved to follow you. We hope that this simple control makes it easy for everyone to decide what level of privacy makes

sense.”









Prominent users of Instagram such as National Geographic have stopped posting photos to instagram, saying “We are very concerned with the direction of the

proposed new terms of service and if they remain as presented we may close our account”. Celebrities have also taken to social platforms to express their

disappointment at the change. Popular basketball player Lebron James tweeted that "So i hear IG will start selling photos that posted for their own profit.

Is this correct? If so then me and everyone i know will be OUT!!".News anchor Anderson Cooper also tweeted “ #Instagram will now be able to use anyone's photos in ads? Without consent?

Come on! Is there another photo app people recommend?”.









Will you be changing to another photo-sharing app? If so, which one would you recommend? Please let us know in the comments below!

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