"Dear Instagram, Good-bye old friend ... it isn't me it's you," Brian Simpson wrote on his Facebook wall as he shut down his Instagram account. It was the first thing he did when he read of Instagram's first big policy change since it was acquired by Facebook in April.
Instagram, the popular service for sharing and filtering photos shot on phones, has now released changes to its Terms of Use, which will go into effect on Jan. 16, 2013 for all users. "Our community has grown a lot since we wrote our original terms of service. To get things up to date for the millions of people now using Instagram, we're bringing you new versions of our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service," Instagram wrote on its blog.
It quickly had something of an online rebellion on its hands. Pink, the singer, was one of many who vented on Twitter: "I will be quitting Instragram today. What a bummer. You should all read their new rules."
So what did they say? Instagram pointed out a few updates, including the fact that it's not changing anything regarding who can see your photos or who owns them and that it's now sharing its systems with Facebook so it can fight spam better.
But it didn't mention something that's in the fine print.
Your Photos Can Be Used By Others
"Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service," it said. "Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service's Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/."
The legalese goes on. "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." (You can read the full Terms of Service here.)
If you read that carefully you'll understand that Instagram doesn't "own" your content, but it can license your photos to other companies. If it wanted, it says in effect, it could sell your photos to advertisers or other firms.
Another major change? Advertising. "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."
Much of the wording and the general message is the same as Facebook's Terms of Service. Facebook and Instagram did not return ABC News' request for comment on the new changes.
Facebook's Return on Investment And Facebook, which paid a billion dollars for the small photo-sharing start-up, is at the core of the changes. They show that Instagram, which has previously not displayed advertising or had any paid services, is looking to make money.
"When you pay $1 billion for a service with no revenues, as a public company you're expected to find a way to monetize it. That said, many users are likely to be surprised to discover is that their content is now how Instagram may monetize their business. While consumers may be okay with ad-supported services, providing content, sometimes personal, for ads may well cause a backlash for both Instagram and Facebook," Michael Gartenberg, research director at Gartner Inc., told ABC News.
And it's that portion of the fine print -- the language that refers to licensing or selling photos to others -- that has many users and even legal and privacy experts worried.
"Some of this sounds so open ended. This change is very troubling," Bradley Shear, a Washington, D.C.-area attorney and blogger who is an expert on social media, told ABC News. "Obviously they want to montezie your data, but it allows them to utilize your content in any manner they see fit in perpetuity."
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