If you belong, that is. Or have joined. I'm not sure anyone "belongs" to these things. They certainly don't belong to us. Anyway: Instagram is getting flak for its new privacy statement. Apparently it's different from the old one, which no one read. No ever reads the whole EULA; everyone who's in their twenties today grew up learning to lie about reading legal documents. They might as well say "By clicking 'I Agree' you acknowledge that you read the entire 15,938 words document, including the part about the company not being liable if the software causes your computer to repeatedly dial the police and ask, in a flat robotic voice, if they have Prince Albert in the can." Sure whatever I want to play the game, click.
Gizmodo says:
The Instagram blog says these changes will help them fight spam - there isn't any at present, but there might be - and "detect system and reliability problems more quickly." So all your data is going to Facebook, which will sift it and sell it and
ensure that your ad experience is just as nifty as possible. Great! If that's what you want. I don't. I want Facebook to leave me alone. The other part that's caused some to stalk away in a huff? Instagram - meaning, Facebook - says they can use your photos for anything, if they want.Someone else got in trouble for this a while back; who was it? Pinterest? It's a stupid move, easy to avoid. Have an agreement that makes sense to ordinary humans, and include something like this:
"Gosh no, we'd never use your pictures in any ad campaign without asking. That would be skeezy. If we did ask, and you said yes, we'd pay you. I mean, didn't we just get a billion dollars from Facebook? Of course!"
Not to overquote Giz, but they're on this with the usual finesse and incisive perspective you've come to expect:
He goes on to point out the obvious: it's free, no one's making you use it, and businesses need to make money, so if theylicense your photo to someone willing to pay money, it'll keep the lights on. Because he knows that opinionated bossypants get attention, he tells you how to regard your work:
Counterpoint: shut up. Elaboration: shut up and sit down. Yes, the charm of Instagram, in part, comes from the stream of snaps that flow past, documenting people's lives, the things they see, the desserts they feel compelled to share with the world, and so on. If you subscribe to your friends' feeds, that's what you will get. But if you subscribe to people who are very good, and have a style or recurring subject you like, it's not a throwaway experience - and if you're one of those
