Facebook Is Killing Instagram

Between its petty battle with Twitter and imperious demand to sell your photos, it is time to look for a new photo-sharing service.

Tech enthusiasts will recognize the pattern: early adoption, fanatical following, and then inevitable disillusionment. This is the pattern I followed with Twitter, Foursquare, and now Instagram.

I do some of my most personal social networking on Instagram, posting photos of cocktails and sunsets to break up my conventional tech links and snarky commentary. But like many Instagram loyalists, I was worried the Facebook acquisition would ruin the service. As far as I can tell, that is exactly what is happening.

Last week, Instagram removed the ability to easily see picture previews in your Twitter feed. One of the things I liked most about Instagram was that I could post an image, link, and location to Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare from within the app. The ability to cross-post drove my early Foursquare usage, and Instagram was the perfect replacement. Unfortunately, the company seemed to take offense that Twitter was releasing its own photo filters and decided to throw a monkey wrench into that plan.

As annoying as its move was, it doesn't seem to be hurting Instagram's traffic. With previews turned off, Instagram is actually getting more referrals from Twitter. Good for Instagram, bad for users.

It was frustrating indeed, but it seems Instagram saved the big news for this week. Companies routinely update their terms of service and privacy policies and, frankly, I rarely pay attention. I understand the tradeoffs that come when you are using a free service?it could be a big ugly ad on the homepage or the ability to target you based on demographic information.

Even so, the language in Instagram's new terms of service is stark: 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.

Say what you will, but that isn't ambiguous. Any photo you take can be sold to a stock agency, used in an advertisement, or just data mined to create a visual component to your online profile. That great photo of you drinking a Budweiser with your dudes? Classic! So classic it will now be on every billboard and cab in New York City. Mom will be proud.

To be clear, Instagram isn't saying it "owns" your photos. In fact, the TOS specifically states, "Instagram does not claim ownership of any content that you post on or through the Service."

"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 updated policy says.

But you own the photos, 100 percent.

Indeed, the idea of ownership is a tricky one here. No one can expect a photo shared on Instagram to be private; the service is designed to make it public. And yet, there should be a distinction between what is pubic and what can be sold, licensed, or otherwise used for commercial gain. If I take an adorable picture of my son eating a bowl of Cheerios, I should have some say over whether that photo is used in a television commercial. (Although, at 18 years old, he probably doesn't fit the target demographic.)

Of course, Instagram needs to make money. You can't complain when you are using the service for free. As the Atlantic's Alex Madrigal argues, this is exactly why you should be willing to pay for software. And yet, there are other ways to make money. The easiest ways would be to ask some of its 100 million users to cough up a few bucks a year.

Better still, imagine an Instagram where users did have some control over how their photos were used?and could even profit from their commercial use. You would have an army of users trying to take cool photos of people drinking Pepsi. The user base would be invested, literally.

Instead, we are just pissed.

I have only been using Instagram since it ported to Android. I have posted 136 photos, have 138 followers, and follow 43 people. Twitter now has hipster filters just like Instagram. And I hear Flickr's new mobile app is much improved.

For now you can follow me on Instagram at danscosta, but probably not for much longer. For more, check out How to Quit Instagram and Take Your Photos With You.

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Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/dancosta

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Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413339,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000993

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