Instagram invites outrage over new privacy policy

Due to a coming change in its privacy policies, photo-sharing service Instagram may no longer be the darling of its 100 million users. Effective January, Instagram will start sharing user information with "affiliates," a move that could allow targeted advertising and, more alarmingly, invasions of privacy. "Nothing has changed about your photos’ ownership or who can see them," Instagram said in a blog post. "Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used." One of the policy changes - which will take effect Jan. 16 - allows Instagram to share a user's information with "business partners, which may include advertising partners, businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of, or that become part of the same group." Tech site CNET noted that such affiliates that Instagram said may offer their "own services" may mean advertising. Also, it pointed out that Instagram "may" even share user data with third-party advertisers. An Op-Ed piece on tech site Mashable was scathing: Instagram wants to share users' data with its new owner Facebook. "Yes, all of it, in most all the ways you can imagine -- to the point where the pair will soon have the right to sell your likeness to advertisers without your knowledge," it said. "And what can you do? You can't reject the privacy policy. (Since Facebook isn't a democracy any more, you can't even vote on it.) You can only vote with your feet and never use Instagram again. Even following a link to an Instagram pic constitutes acceptance of the policy," it added. It also noted Instagram may be feeling uncomfortable with rival services suddenly cropping up, including Twitter and a resurgent Flickr. Earlier this month Instagram and micro-blogging service Twitter engaged in a social media war of sorts as Instagram barred users from viewing its images in tweets. Instead, Instagram wants photo viewers to go to its own website, where it can earn revenue from ads. Twitter retaliated by rolling out its own Instagram-style photo features. "It [the new privacy policy] could come to nothing, of course, and Instagram may continue its growth as before. But I wouldn't be surprised to see a #jan16 campaign gain popularity among the pissed-off photographers of Twitter," said Mashable editorial, adding a social-media inspired revolution in Egypt two years ago in January "also revolved around a single hashtag symbolizing a day of action -- #jan25." — DVM, GMA News