Instagram seems to want to backtrack and is reconsidering its policy regarding privacy and the ability to sell photos.
The news of the change of privacy rules on Instagram, with the possibility of selling subscriber photos without the authors’ consent, has unleashed a strong shockwave of protests that have flooded the photo-sharing platform’s staff.
Many yesterday decided to delete their account on Instagram, to avoid being forced to accept such imposed rules.
Perhaps it was the mass exodus or the strong echo of controversy, but today we learn that on the official company blog, it was decided to explain the situation better.
In particular,Kevin Systrom states that it was probably a misunderstanding due to the unclear use of language and therefore the CEO of Instagram promises that the rules will be reviewed, in order to rewrite them in a more appropriate form.
Also the official Instagram channel on Twitter was used to convey the company’s apologies to subscribers.
It was therefore decided to quell the controversy but more likely the numerous cancellations, but it is certainly not yet clear how the Instagram staff will want to act in the future, in resuming the discussion on rewriting the new rules.
It is not clear, in particular, whether users’ photos will actually be usable in any way by the company: the blog states that ownership rights remain with the users and that the company itself does not claim any rights.
The situation regarding the use of advertising is different: in this case, it is pointed out that “From the beginning, Instagram was created to become a business. Advertising is one of the many ways Instagram can become self-sufficient, but not the only one“.
And it continues, returning to the issue of the potential sale of photos: “we would like to experiment with innovative forms of advertising suitable for Instagram. Instead, this has been interpreted by many as if we were going to sell your photos to others without compensation. This is not true and our mistake was to use confusing language. To be clear: we have no intention of selling your photos“.
A clear about-face, therefore, by Instagram, while awaiting to discover – however – what the actual revisions to the new rules will be.
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