Instagram, the photo-oriented social network which was purchased by Facebook for $700m in cash and shares last April, has revealed the new terms of service which it will be implementing from January next year, and they mark a new direction out for the company.
The passage which is getting all the attention online is the second section under the heading “Rights”:
Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. 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. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.
Instagram is not just taking adverts, as many predicted would happen once the Facebook acquisition was complete; it is also claiming the right to sell use of your photos to businesses to make ads with.
That’s a pretty big step up from previous practice, but is similar in tone to what Facebook has been doing with their social marketing for a while now. As Nick Bergus learned, Facebook’s method isn’t without hitches. When he posted a jokey link to a 55-gallon barrel of “Passion”-brand lubricant, it was adopted by Facebook into an advert which was then shown to all his friends.
The problem with the Instagram extension of this concept is two-fold. Firstly, just as with the Bergus screw-up, recontextualising a picture as an advert changes what it says, frequently for the worse. But secondly, it feels like a Rubicon has been crossed if the “user-generated content” being used is undoubtedly a creative work – which even the blandest Instagram photos are – and if money changes hands without including the actual creator of that work.
In addition, of course, there’s the idiot factor: People seem to forget how public Instagram is, and finding themselves included on a national poster campaign could be a nasty way to find that out.
As ever with this sort of change, there is likely to be a disconnect between the rights the ToS claim, and Instagram’s actual plans. I would be surprised, for instance, if they intended to sell user images for use as generic stock photos, rather than for Instagram-specific ad campaigns. But I would also be surprised if these terms didn’t give them the right to do that if they so desired.
Oh, and you can’t actually reject these terms. If you’re still using the service on 16 January, you are deemed to have accepted them.
It seems almost too perfect that in the same week that Instagram launches an anti-user change, Flickr – remember Flickr? – has released a new iPhone app which brings a host of Instagram-like changes to the service, including far quicker access to the camera, better Twitter integration and, yes, filters. A number of people are suggesting switching to (or back to) the service as a result.
The best thing about this switch is that it isn’t just kicking the can down the road. After all, the reason Instagram included these changes is because it has to make money. The Atlantic‘s Alexis Madrigal makes the point:
[C]ompanies have to sell themselves because they do not have a sustainable business. And when they’re sold, they either A) get shut down or B) become part of an advertising machine, like Facebook’s.Truly, the only way to get around the privacy problems inherent in advertising-supported social networks is to pay for services that we value. It’s amazing what power we gain in becoming paying customers instead of the product being sold.
Flickr, by contrast, does have a paid service, and has for years. There’s no guarantee it won’t take the quick buck – but it has a business model which involves treating users as the customer, not the product. And that’s a nice change from the norm, these days.
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