Do you use Instagram? The popular photo sharing app made popular on IOS, now on just about every mobile platform. If you do, or even if you know someone else who uses it, you might be in for a bit of a surprise come January 16, 2013. Instagram has updated their TOS(terms of service), and as of January 16th of next year, they will be asserting that they have the right to use your images in ads for their service. So, pictures of you, of people you've taken photos of, events you've taken photos of are all fair game and Instagram says they can use them to promote their service without your permission or having to pay you a single cent!
Last time I checked, anyone who wanted to use someones likeness in an advertising campaign, they had to at the very least get a signed consent form. Usually there's payment involved as well seeing as how it's YOUR likeness being used by them to sell their service. Just about every photo on the internet these days has someone asserting copyright privileges to it after all. Apparently Instagram believes that with just a little careful wording in their TOS, they can bypass all that tom-foolery about copyright and use your images free of charge simply because you use their service. Not just you, mind you, even people you've taken pictures of who aren't users of their service.
I see this as a blatant misuse of a companies Terms of Service. My recommendation to anyone reading this that uses Instagram would be to delete your account, (the only way at this time to opt out), and use another service. There are a lot of companies on the internet like Instagram and Facebook, (which now coincidentally owns Instagram?!), that think simply because they provide a service, all of it's users content belongs to them to use as they please.
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