Ethics Of Privacy
Instagram and the Ethics of Privacy
Monday, Feb. 4, 2013
Background
Founded in 2010, Instagram considers itself to be “a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.” By downloading the free Instagram mobile application (or app), users snap a photo with their mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image, and can share it on various sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The company views itself as more than just a photo-storage tool but a way “to experience moments in your friends ' lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos.”
In April 2012, the 13-employee company was acquired by social networking giant Facebook for approximately $1 billion. In …show more content…
less than three years, Instagram has become one of the fastest growing social media platforms as seen by its estimated 12 million daily users.1
Dilemma
In December 2012, several months after being acquired by Facebook, Instagram announced new changes to its privacy policy and terms of use. According to the updated terms, "a business or other entity may pay Instagram to display users ' photos and other details in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you," and there was no apparent option to opt out.2 The backlash was immediate. Photographers and celebrities were particularly upset, given that their photos were a part of their own businesses and brand images.
Instagram was quick to respond that its intention was simply to improve advertising. Co-founder Kevin Systrom posted, “Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos.”3
Instagram 's privacy policies and terms of use were once again updated in January 2013. The current terms state, “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.”4 Instagram also reserves the right to share users information (including analytics information, log files, cookies, and location data, as well as the content users post) with companies affiliated with Instagram (mainly Facebook), third-party service providers, third-party advertisers, and “other parties.”5
While the initial backlash against Instagram has been quelled, there is still uneasiness among users regarding privacy issues. Instagram has to walk a fine line to keep its users happy and still turn a profit. On one hand, Instagram offers a free service to users, which up until this point has been free of advertisements, unlike other social media platforms like Facebook. In order to remain a viable company, Instagram has to bring in revenue somehow, and advertising seems the obvious choice.
Our Response
We believe that it is not unreasonable for Instagram to try to make money using member photos for several reasons. Firstly, it would be foolish for Instagram to walk away from such a lucrative revenue opportunity. On January 17, 2013, it announced the following powerful statistics6 :
90 million Monthly Active Users
40 million Photos Per Day
8,500 Likes Per Second
1,000 Comments Per Second
With staggering numbers such as these, how could a zero-revenue company not optimize these opportunities? And let us not forget that Facebook purchased the company for $1 billion in cash and equity in April 2012. Facebook owes it to its shareholders to try to monetize Instagram considering how much it spent on this company in addition to Facebook’s subpar performance since going public last year.
Secondly, users pay absolutely nothing for using Instagram 's services; there is no price per photo uploaded, monthly/annual subscription required, or pricing scheme of any sort. Individuals and celebrities are not the only ones who derive personal benefit from Instagram, but businesses, too. Many small businesses like to use Instagram as a marketing tool because it is free and effective. For instance, some will upload pictures of new product arrivals to lure new and/or existing customers to come in and purchase. Not to mention, businesses like to have Instagram accounts because the service allows them to build their brand and customer loyalty through daily/weekly posts, thus, giving them the venue to engage and interact with customers in ways they could not do previously.
Question
How much, if any, of our information should Instagram be able to share with third-parties and advertisers? OR Why are Instagram users making such a fuss about the revised privacy policy if they are gaining so much personal satisfaction and/or business from a service that is free? - See more at: http://www.scu.edu/ethics-center/ethicsblog/globaldialog.cfm?b=180&c=15267#sthash.UBXCZRdK.dpuf
Question
How much, if any, of our information should Instagram be able to share with third-parties and advertisers? OR Why are Instagram users making such a fuss about the revised privacy policy if they are gaining so much personal satisfaction and/or business from a service that is free?
Instagram is an application that lets you take photos, make them look amazing and post them online from your phone. It is a powerful tool that literally puts some of the tools that professional photographers use onto your iPhone or Android. Right after Instagram acquired by Facebook for $750 million, the first change that the new company made was to revise their terms and conditions for all Instagram users to agree to even before joining as a member of Instagram.
The change of Instagram policy stated that it would be likely for any major advertising company or third party buyer to purchase users ' personal photographs from Instagram without any form of consent from the photograph’s owner.
Instagram users including celebrities and top internet marketers are making such a fuss about the revised policy, simply because they are strongly disagree with the new policy that do not respect their privacy right. Why do we make such a claim? Let 's take a look at the terms and conditions which currently state that: “[users] hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensed, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service.” This also shows that there are already 100 million existing members would continue to use Instagram without being made aware of the change to the privacy …show more content…
policy.
To us, Instagram is not just a photo sharing social network, it acts as Private Data Broker at the same time. Private Data Broker is someone or some company that stores your private data on their database (the data could be about age, gender, messages, photos etc.) and sell it to some other person or companies for trade/profit purposes.
As an Instagram’s users, we agree that Instagram provides us a fantastic and free platform to share our daily life with the world or maybe just with our own circle of friends by our own choice. It is no doubt that majority of the users enjoy the app so much before they revised their policy. However, by providing us a free service doesn’t mean that the basic right as an Instagram’s free member can be exploit. We own the content posted by ourselves, regardless a selfie, food photo, scenery shot, modelling photo, wedding or family photo etc. If the photo is taken by us from our cameras or hand phones, as long as it is not violate, misappropriate or infringe the rights of any third party such as privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademarks or intellectual property right, we have absolute right and control over the content we choose to publish and also the right to decide whether should Instagram sell our published photos. The reason we insist on this simply because we are the original owner, our basic rights shall be respected.
Moreover, due to technical and complex legal wording of the terms and conditions that made it difficult to determine what the license actually meant to say, users annoyed at Instagram 's choice to abuse free members photo privacy in addition to making it difficult to fully comprehend what this change of policy meant for the protection of their privacy. Once the legal language was deciphered, it was clear that any Instagram user, including celebrity users, would be legally subjected to this violation of privacy simply by clicking the "I agree to the terms of service" box. Celebrities like P!NK, Coco Rocha, and Emma Stone all spoke out against this policy revision and threatening to leave Instagram 's network all together. These angry tweets and public statements spread widely and encouraged other users to leave. In a matter of days Instagram lost 25% of its members and over 50% of its daily users by January 2013.
From our point of view, any company including Instagram must not deceive or withhold information from its consumers. In this case, Instagram changed its term of privacy after they had gained over 100 million users. These users in most cases were not aware of the change, and the violation of their privacy would go unnoticed if it had not been made public by the media. Instagram’s decision to withhold information from users and treating them as mere means for profit inevitably caused the users to lose trust in the company and it was financially unfavorable to their business too.
We can clearly see this change in policy was made in order for Instagram to make more money by benefiting from advertising companies who want to purchase photos for campaigns, as we know advertising revenue is the main source of Facebook’s income, thus we believe this is the intention of Facebook acquiring Instagram in conjunction with the change of policy further proved our claim. We agreed that there is nothing wrong for a company to make money through its users. However making money in an unethical way by neglecting its users’ basic right is definitely wrong and it creates dissatisfaction among the users. 25% opt out rate is the best proof of users showing their dissatisfaction, anger and frustration, and it also proved that the revised policy just doesn’t work on these users, including us.
Instead of earning more money from the advertisers, Instagram is now losing more users who can potentially generate good revenue for Instagram if the company respected the right of these users by asking for their permission, in the case of Instagram selling its users’ photos to third party. If Instagram seek consent of the users each time an advertiser is interested in purchasing the photos, the users will feel respected. This simple action create better user experience, in return, high possibility for Instagram to be more respectable and gain even more users instead of losing them, simply because the users know Instagram is a trustable and reliable social network, it will not abuse the right and infringe the privacy of its users even it is a free of charge social network.
One of the Instagram founders Kevin Systorm responded to the immediate dissatisfaction by formally stating, "I 'm writing this today to let you know we 're listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion," he said. "As we review your feedback and stories in the press, we 're going to modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos." However the terms remain unmodified as of April 2013.
In addition, the company stated in the terms of use that it would use the profits to cut down on spam and introduce new features for the app in the future. In our opinion, this is a marketing gimmick or reason for them to sell the users’ photos freely, without seeking any permission. Since Instagram is under the roof of Facebook which has achieved 1.5 billion net income in 2013 alone, we believe Facebook has the capability to allocate as small as 0.01% of its net income to enhance the operation and to support the marketing activities of Instagram in an ethical way in order gain bigger market share and to expand its user base.
In evaluating Instagram in regards to ethical theories, Instagram failed to practice good moral ethics when deciding to change its terms of service. Instagram 's main intention was to gain profits and is a demonstrated Individualist perspective to seek his or her interests primarily. We would say that Instagram’s choice to change its terms of service was not beneficial for both users and the company. Instagram was not able to bring happiness and satisfaction to its members based on the primary goal of Utilitarianism in ethics discussion, which is to maximize happiness for all parties involved. To keep their users happy, Instagram just need to respect the rights of their users by asking permission from its users, and they should be given the right to agree or disagree to sell their photos. This small act makes the users feel secured and respected. When a company can keep their users happy and enjoying their service, the flow of revenue will eventually follows. We can say that, without this huge amount of free members using their service and interacting with each other, Instagram will not stand a chance to make any profit from advertisers even Instagram offered superb service for free. If Instagram is forcefully asking its users to accept and agree to its new policy, we think it is fair enough for the users to request for a portion of profit sharing when their photos are sold by Instagram.
Our evaluation of this case is that we are very concerned about our privacy and the privacy of others on Instagram. What Instagram is doing, is not an ethical way to treat users even if the service we are enjoying is free, and is not right to make profit for their company in a forceful and misleading way. We would not want our photos posted anywhere else besides where we decide. In case of any third party interested in buying our photo, we as the owner of the content should be notified by Instagram and to be given absolute decision-making power on selling the photo. According to our understanding of online ethics, Instagram shall maintain transparency in their policies and actions so that we as the users can easily and quickly understand how that Instagram is using our information, protecting us from harm, and giving us a clear means of ownership and self-determination as to what is, and isn’t shared about us.
Another concern arises when we agree to sell our photo- how much of our information should Instagram be able to share with third-parties and advertisers?
As we went through the Privacy Policy of Instagram, they are not only just storing our photos, but also other information stated as below:
1. Information you provide Instagram directly:
Your username, password and e-mail address when you register for an Instagram account.
Profile information that you provide for your user profile (e.g., first and last name, picture, phone number).
User Content (e.g., photos, comments, and other materials) that you post.
Communications between you and Instagram. For example, we may send you Service-related emails (e.g., account verification, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices). Note that you may not opt out of Service-related e-mails.
If you remove information that you posted to the Service, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service, or if other Users or third parties using the Instagram API have copied or saved that information.
2. Finding your friends on Instagram:
If you choose to find your friends through (i) your device 's contacts list, then Instagram will access your contacts list to determine whether or not someone associated with your contact is using Instagram.
If you choose to find your friends through a (ii) third-party social media site, then you will be prompted to set up a link to the third-party service and you understand that any information that such service may provide to Instagram will be governed by this Privacy Policy.
3. Analytics information:
Including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists Instagram in improving the Service.
4. Cookies and similar technologies:
When you visit the Service, Instagram may use cookies and similar technologies like pixels, web beacons, and local storage to collect information about how you use Instagram.
5. Log file information:
Log file information is automatically reported by your browser each time you make a request to access (i.e., visit) a web page or app. It can also be provided when the content of the webpage or app is downloaded to your browser or device.
When you use Instagram, it automatically record certain log file information, including your web request, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on Instagram, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.
Instagram may also collect similar information from emails sent to our Users which then help us track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients.
6. Device identifiers:
When you use a mobile device like a tablet or phone to access Instagram, they may access, collect, monitor, store on your device, and/or remotely store one or more "device identifiers."
Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device.
A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device 's operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by Instagram.
A device identifier may deliver information to Instagram or to a third party partner about how you browse and use the service.
This is a long list of information Instagram gather from us once we completed the sign up process. To our personal acceptance in this discussion group, we are fine if Instagram is sharing our basic personal information such as name, email address, gender, age, marital status, race, religion, to some extent even our phone number, as long as we do not receive spam email and not more than 3 calls per week from the advertisers promoting their business or service. As we understand advertiser needs customers too for the business they are running and it is fair enough if the pay and gain access to our name, email address and phone number in order to expand their business.
However, data such as our resident address, current location based on GPS, internet browsing history, cookies, and personal photos published on Instagram shall not be shared without our permission, as we have no idea how many third-parties and advertisers do they have. With the increasing rate of internet crime especially misuses of information for fraudulent activities and online scam, the privacy of our data is vulnerable and not being well-protected. Furthermore, we have no idea at all what would these third parties do with all our personal information. Although Instagram stated clearly in its Privacy Policy that they will use our personal data for further improvements of their service, it does not guarantee our information will not be misuse or sold to third parties. We as a normal users will not have any access to Instagram’s backend system to find out how they collect and use our data. We also do not know how strictly they adhere to their own policy. We are being left with tons of question marks regarding the safety and security of our personal information.
Additionally Instagram is a mobile app, and people have their hand phone and tablet with them at least 14 hours per day, not forgetting Instagram has the ability to gather information on our mobile and tablets such as data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device 's operating system or other software, internet browsing history, current location, contact list, cookies and cache. With all these information can be gathered by Instagram mobile app, it is as good as an invisible stalker following us anonymously every day.
Despite we do not agree on sharing any information other than our name, email and contact number to third parties, we believe there are many users out there are willing to let Instagram share their data. Instagram just need to go through the proper channel by notifying their users and also asking permission from them before sharing and selling any of their data.
In term of responding to legal requests such as search warrant, court order or subpoena, include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions in any countries, we are positive to let Instagram reveal and share all our personal data.
This case reminds us that nothing we post on the internet is private and even services like Instagram and Facebook are not safe ways to keep our photo privacy. As a user, we should think twice before posting any personal data including photos on any social network. If Instagram has the intention of making money from the service, perhaps they could introduce a premium paid membership that users could pay for if they choose. This paid membership could have new features which promise the users that strictly no personal data will be collected or being sold if they choose to pay a little extra for extra. This would produce profits for Instagram without having to deceive its users. In order to reach out to lost members like us, Instagram need to come up with a better revised policy that protect our basic right ad privacy.
References
Brown, C.
"Kant 's Ethics." Kant 's Ethics. Trinity University, 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Hull, Richard T., PhD. "The Varieties of Ethical Theories." Given at Buffalo Psychiatric Center (1979): n. pag. 27 Mar. 1979. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Mitra-Thakur, Sofia. "Instagram Says It Won 't Sell Users ' Photos." E & T Magazine. N.p., 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Rushe, Dominic. "Instagram Founders Turn Two Years of Work into $1 Billion Only in Silicon Valley." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 10 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Smith, David. "Instagram Loses Half Its Daily Users In A Month, And Here 's Why [REPORT]." International Business Times. N.p., 14 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Teich, Al. "The National Press Club." Internet Privacy Expert to Speak on Instagram Controversy at Photo Committee Lunch Meeting Wednesday, Jan. 30. The National Press Club 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Weisman, Aly. "Celebrities Tweet Their Outrage Over Instagram 's New Terms." Business Insider. N.p., 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
West, Henry R. "Utilitarianism." Utilitarianism. Encyclopædia Britannica, 23 May 2005. Web. 13 Apr.
2013.
Monday, Feb. 4, 2013
Background
Founded in 2010, Instagram considers itself to be “a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.” By downloading the free Instagram mobile application (or app), users snap a photo with their mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image, and can share it on various sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The company views itself as more than just a photo-storage tool but a way “to experience moments in your friends ' lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos.”
In April 2012, the 13-employee company was acquired by social networking giant Facebook for approximately $1 billion. In …show more content…
less than three years, Instagram has become one of the fastest growing social media platforms as seen by its estimated 12 million daily users.1
Dilemma
In December 2012, several months after being acquired by Facebook, Instagram announced new changes to its privacy policy and terms of use. According to the updated terms, "a business or other entity may pay Instagram to display users ' photos and other details in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you," and there was no apparent option to opt out.2 The backlash was immediate. Photographers and celebrities were particularly upset, given that their photos were a part of their own businesses and brand images.
Instagram was quick to respond that its intention was simply to improve advertising. Co-founder Kevin Systrom posted, “Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos.”3
Instagram 's privacy policies and terms of use were once again updated in January 2013. The current terms state, “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.”4 Instagram also reserves the right to share users information (including analytics information, log files, cookies, and location data, as well as the content users post) with companies affiliated with Instagram (mainly Facebook), third-party service providers, third-party advertisers, and “other parties.”5
While the initial backlash against Instagram has been quelled, there is still uneasiness among users regarding privacy issues. Instagram has to walk a fine line to keep its users happy and still turn a profit. On one hand, Instagram offers a free service to users, which up until this point has been free of advertisements, unlike other social media platforms like Facebook. In order to remain a viable company, Instagram has to bring in revenue somehow, and advertising seems the obvious choice.
Our Response
We believe that it is not unreasonable for Instagram to try to make money using member photos for several reasons. Firstly, it would be foolish for Instagram to walk away from such a lucrative revenue opportunity. On January 17, 2013, it announced the following powerful statistics6 :
90 million Monthly Active Users
40 million Photos Per Day
8,500 Likes Per Second
1,000 Comments Per Second
With staggering numbers such as these, how could a zero-revenue company not optimize these opportunities? And let us not forget that Facebook purchased the company for $1 billion in cash and equity in April 2012. Facebook owes it to its shareholders to try to monetize Instagram considering how much it spent on this company in addition to Facebook’s subpar performance since going public last year.
Secondly, users pay absolutely nothing for using Instagram 's services; there is no price per photo uploaded, monthly/annual subscription required, or pricing scheme of any sort. Individuals and celebrities are not the only ones who derive personal benefit from Instagram, but businesses, too. Many small businesses like to use Instagram as a marketing tool because it is free and effective. For instance, some will upload pictures of new product arrivals to lure new and/or existing customers to come in and purchase. Not to mention, businesses like to have Instagram accounts because the service allows them to build their brand and customer loyalty through daily/weekly posts, thus, giving them the venue to engage and interact with customers in ways they could not do previously.
Question
How much, if any, of our information should Instagram be able to share with third-parties and advertisers? OR Why are Instagram users making such a fuss about the revised privacy policy if they are gaining so much personal satisfaction and/or business from a service that is free? - See more at: http://www.scu.edu/ethics-center/ethicsblog/globaldialog.cfm?b=180&c=15267#sthash.UBXCZRdK.dpuf
Question
How much, if any, of our information should Instagram be able to share with third-parties and advertisers? OR Why are Instagram users making such a fuss about the revised privacy policy if they are gaining so much personal satisfaction and/or business from a service that is free?
Instagram is an application that lets you take photos, make them look amazing and post them online from your phone. It is a powerful tool that literally puts some of the tools that professional photographers use onto your iPhone or Android. Right after Instagram acquired by Facebook for $750 million, the first change that the new company made was to revise their terms and conditions for all Instagram users to agree to even before joining as a member of Instagram.
The change of Instagram policy stated that it would be likely for any major advertising company or third party buyer to purchase users ' personal photographs from Instagram without any form of consent from the photograph’s owner.
Instagram users including celebrities and top internet marketers are making such a fuss about the revised policy, simply because they are strongly disagree with the new policy that do not respect their privacy right. Why do we make such a claim? Let 's take a look at the terms and conditions which currently state that: “[users] hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensed, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service.” This also shows that there are already 100 million existing members would continue to use Instagram without being made aware of the change to the privacy …show more content…
policy.
To us, Instagram is not just a photo sharing social network, it acts as Private Data Broker at the same time. Private Data Broker is someone or some company that stores your private data on their database (the data could be about age, gender, messages, photos etc.) and sell it to some other person or companies for trade/profit purposes.
As an Instagram’s users, we agree that Instagram provides us a fantastic and free platform to share our daily life with the world or maybe just with our own circle of friends by our own choice. It is no doubt that majority of the users enjoy the app so much before they revised their policy. However, by providing us a free service doesn’t mean that the basic right as an Instagram’s free member can be exploit. We own the content posted by ourselves, regardless a selfie, food photo, scenery shot, modelling photo, wedding or family photo etc. If the photo is taken by us from our cameras or hand phones, as long as it is not violate, misappropriate or infringe the rights of any third party such as privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademarks or intellectual property right, we have absolute right and control over the content we choose to publish and also the right to decide whether should Instagram sell our published photos. The reason we insist on this simply because we are the original owner, our basic rights shall be respected.
Moreover, due to technical and complex legal wording of the terms and conditions that made it difficult to determine what the license actually meant to say, users annoyed at Instagram 's choice to abuse free members photo privacy in addition to making it difficult to fully comprehend what this change of policy meant for the protection of their privacy. Once the legal language was deciphered, it was clear that any Instagram user, including celebrity users, would be legally subjected to this violation of privacy simply by clicking the "I agree to the terms of service" box. Celebrities like P!NK, Coco Rocha, and Emma Stone all spoke out against this policy revision and threatening to leave Instagram 's network all together. These angry tweets and public statements spread widely and encouraged other users to leave. In a matter of days Instagram lost 25% of its members and over 50% of its daily users by January 2013.
From our point of view, any company including Instagram must not deceive or withhold information from its consumers. In this case, Instagram changed its term of privacy after they had gained over 100 million users. These users in most cases were not aware of the change, and the violation of their privacy would go unnoticed if it had not been made public by the media. Instagram’s decision to withhold information from users and treating them as mere means for profit inevitably caused the users to lose trust in the company and it was financially unfavorable to their business too.
We can clearly see this change in policy was made in order for Instagram to make more money by benefiting from advertising companies who want to purchase photos for campaigns, as we know advertising revenue is the main source of Facebook’s income, thus we believe this is the intention of Facebook acquiring Instagram in conjunction with the change of policy further proved our claim. We agreed that there is nothing wrong for a company to make money through its users. However making money in an unethical way by neglecting its users’ basic right is definitely wrong and it creates dissatisfaction among the users. 25% opt out rate is the best proof of users showing their dissatisfaction, anger and frustration, and it also proved that the revised policy just doesn’t work on these users, including us.
Instead of earning more money from the advertisers, Instagram is now losing more users who can potentially generate good revenue for Instagram if the company respected the right of these users by asking for their permission, in the case of Instagram selling its users’ photos to third party. If Instagram seek consent of the users each time an advertiser is interested in purchasing the photos, the users will feel respected. This simple action create better user experience, in return, high possibility for Instagram to be more respectable and gain even more users instead of losing them, simply because the users know Instagram is a trustable and reliable social network, it will not abuse the right and infringe the privacy of its users even it is a free of charge social network.
One of the Instagram founders Kevin Systorm responded to the immediate dissatisfaction by formally stating, "I 'm writing this today to let you know we 're listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion," he said. "As we review your feedback and stories in the press, we 're going to modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos." However the terms remain unmodified as of April 2013.
In addition, the company stated in the terms of use that it would use the profits to cut down on spam and introduce new features for the app in the future. In our opinion, this is a marketing gimmick or reason for them to sell the users’ photos freely, without seeking any permission. Since Instagram is under the roof of Facebook which has achieved 1.5 billion net income in 2013 alone, we believe Facebook has the capability to allocate as small as 0.01% of its net income to enhance the operation and to support the marketing activities of Instagram in an ethical way in order gain bigger market share and to expand its user base.
In evaluating Instagram in regards to ethical theories, Instagram failed to practice good moral ethics when deciding to change its terms of service. Instagram 's main intention was to gain profits and is a demonstrated Individualist perspective to seek his or her interests primarily. We would say that Instagram’s choice to change its terms of service was not beneficial for both users and the company. Instagram was not able to bring happiness and satisfaction to its members based on the primary goal of Utilitarianism in ethics discussion, which is to maximize happiness for all parties involved. To keep their users happy, Instagram just need to respect the rights of their users by asking permission from its users, and they should be given the right to agree or disagree to sell their photos. This small act makes the users feel secured and respected. When a company can keep their users happy and enjoying their service, the flow of revenue will eventually follows. We can say that, without this huge amount of free members using their service and interacting with each other, Instagram will not stand a chance to make any profit from advertisers even Instagram offered superb service for free. If Instagram is forcefully asking its users to accept and agree to its new policy, we think it is fair enough for the users to request for a portion of profit sharing when their photos are sold by Instagram.
Our evaluation of this case is that we are very concerned about our privacy and the privacy of others on Instagram. What Instagram is doing, is not an ethical way to treat users even if the service we are enjoying is free, and is not right to make profit for their company in a forceful and misleading way. We would not want our photos posted anywhere else besides where we decide. In case of any third party interested in buying our photo, we as the owner of the content should be notified by Instagram and to be given absolute decision-making power on selling the photo. According to our understanding of online ethics, Instagram shall maintain transparency in their policies and actions so that we as the users can easily and quickly understand how that Instagram is using our information, protecting us from harm, and giving us a clear means of ownership and self-determination as to what is, and isn’t shared about us.
Another concern arises when we agree to sell our photo- how much of our information should Instagram be able to share with third-parties and advertisers?
As we went through the Privacy Policy of Instagram, they are not only just storing our photos, but also other information stated as below:
1. Information you provide Instagram directly:
Your username, password and e-mail address when you register for an Instagram account.
Profile information that you provide for your user profile (e.g., first and last name, picture, phone number).
User Content (e.g., photos, comments, and other materials) that you post.
Communications between you and Instagram. For example, we may send you Service-related emails (e.g., account verification, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices). Note that you may not opt out of Service-related e-mails.
If you remove information that you posted to the Service, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service, or if other Users or third parties using the Instagram API have copied or saved that information.
2. Finding your friends on Instagram:
If you choose to find your friends through (i) your device 's contacts list, then Instagram will access your contacts list to determine whether or not someone associated with your contact is using Instagram.
If you choose to find your friends through a (ii) third-party social media site, then you will be prompted to set up a link to the third-party service and you understand that any information that such service may provide to Instagram will be governed by this Privacy Policy.
3. Analytics information:
Including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists Instagram in improving the Service.
4. Cookies and similar technologies:
When you visit the Service, Instagram may use cookies and similar technologies like pixels, web beacons, and local storage to collect information about how you use Instagram.
5. Log file information:
Log file information is automatically reported by your browser each time you make a request to access (i.e., visit) a web page or app. It can also be provided when the content of the webpage or app is downloaded to your browser or device.
When you use Instagram, it automatically record certain log file information, including your web request, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on Instagram, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.
Instagram may also collect similar information from emails sent to our Users which then help us track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients.
6. Device identifiers:
When you use a mobile device like a tablet or phone to access Instagram, they may access, collect, monitor, store on your device, and/or remotely store one or more "device identifiers."
Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device.
A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device 's operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by Instagram.
A device identifier may deliver information to Instagram or to a third party partner about how you browse and use the service.
This is a long list of information Instagram gather from us once we completed the sign up process. To our personal acceptance in this discussion group, we are fine if Instagram is sharing our basic personal information such as name, email address, gender, age, marital status, race, religion, to some extent even our phone number, as long as we do not receive spam email and not more than 3 calls per week from the advertisers promoting their business or service. As we understand advertiser needs customers too for the business they are running and it is fair enough if the pay and gain access to our name, email address and phone number in order to expand their business.
However, data such as our resident address, current location based on GPS, internet browsing history, cookies, and personal photos published on Instagram shall not be shared without our permission, as we have no idea how many third-parties and advertisers do they have. With the increasing rate of internet crime especially misuses of information for fraudulent activities and online scam, the privacy of our data is vulnerable and not being well-protected. Furthermore, we have no idea at all what would these third parties do with all our personal information. Although Instagram stated clearly in its Privacy Policy that they will use our personal data for further improvements of their service, it does not guarantee our information will not be misuse or sold to third parties. We as a normal users will not have any access to Instagram’s backend system to find out how they collect and use our data. We also do not know how strictly they adhere to their own policy. We are being left with tons of question marks regarding the safety and security of our personal information.
Additionally Instagram is a mobile app, and people have their hand phone and tablet with them at least 14 hours per day, not forgetting Instagram has the ability to gather information on our mobile and tablets such as data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device 's operating system or other software, internet browsing history, current location, contact list, cookies and cache. With all these information can be gathered by Instagram mobile app, it is as good as an invisible stalker following us anonymously every day.
Despite we do not agree on sharing any information other than our name, email and contact number to third parties, we believe there are many users out there are willing to let Instagram share their data. Instagram just need to go through the proper channel by notifying their users and also asking permission from them before sharing and selling any of their data.
In term of responding to legal requests such as search warrant, court order or subpoena, include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions in any countries, we are positive to let Instagram reveal and share all our personal data.
This case reminds us that nothing we post on the internet is private and even services like Instagram and Facebook are not safe ways to keep our photo privacy. As a user, we should think twice before posting any personal data including photos on any social network. If Instagram has the intention of making money from the service, perhaps they could introduce a premium paid membership that users could pay for if they choose. This paid membership could have new features which promise the users that strictly no personal data will be collected or being sold if they choose to pay a little extra for extra. This would produce profits for Instagram without having to deceive its users. In order to reach out to lost members like us, Instagram need to come up with a better revised policy that protect our basic right ad privacy.
References
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