This document summarizes key points about Instagram's terms of service and privacy policy. It notes that while Instagram has over 800 million users, people typically only spend 6 seconds reviewing lengthy terms and conditions. This puts users at risk of privacy invasion as personal data is collected. The document also discusses how information shared on Instagram like photos can impact future employment and allows third parties to access data for marketing. It recommends users carefully consider what they post and to regularly review privacy settings.

1. Policy Primer and Commentary
Terms & conditions
/ Privacy rights
NET303 – Stacey Hatfield - Privacy Rights – Instagram Case Study

2. What is Instagram?
 Instagram is an application, which is “a simple, fun & creative way to capture, edit & share
photos, videos & messages with friends & family” (Instagram, 2017).
 Instagram launched in 2010 (Instagram, 2017).
 In 2012 Facebook bought Instagram for $300 million cash and acquired an additional 23 million
shares (Protalinski, 2017).
 Worldwide Application and available in 33 languages (Instagram, 2017)!
 How many users are there? 800 Million monthly active users, wow (Statista, 2017).
www.instagram.com
(Instagram, 2017)

3. But what have you actually signed up for and
agreed to?
 A 2011 study has told us that people generally spend an average of 6 seconds on terms of use
pages (MeasuringU, 2017).
 IS THIS ENOUGH?
 Yes, Terms of conditions are long and tedious (Tosdr, 2017).
 But you’re putting yourself at risk with privacy invasion, as companies strategically extract
personal information for their gain, this information may be distributed to whomever (Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse, 2015). So, Internet users do need to be aware of what they are actually
signing themselves up to!

4. Privacy!?
 Many online users are bestowing personal information without even realising (Privacy Rights
Clearinghouse, 2015).
 Whilst using Instagram this information can include: email addresses, birthdays, personal information
gathered from captions, personal information from photos such as school uniforms or even home
addresses and frequent check ins.
 Going private on Instagram? Instragram refers to this as “controlliing your visibility” (Instagram,
2017). Instragram states that a user can control their visibilty by only allowing approved followers to
view a user’s photos/videos on their profiles.
 Content that is hashtagged will not appear publically in hashtag searches, this will only appear for
followers that you have approved permission to view your content.
 Even if you do apply privacy settings to your account, display pictures and usernames can be seen by
any other Insta user...

5. Digital Shadows
 Think carefully about what you are putting out into the world wide web.
 Think about future employment
 More frequently, recruiters are “using tools that integrate social media into the way that
companies filter through applicants for jobs” (Social media can impact future employment, 2014).
 “Social media self-efficacy impacts job seekers’ self-disclosures” (El Ouirdi, Segers, El Ouirdi &
Pais, 2015, p. 2)
 So, be mindful about how you portray yourself to the world through actions and words
(photos/videos and descriptions). Maybe you’re a party person or use a bit too much language.
Complaining about your boss? WOOPS. These choices need to be considered.

6. Being Searchable
 Did you ever get your friends permission to use their photos? Or post photos of their kids. Or
yours? HMMM.. Not only are you giving your personal information but also theirs?! Uh Oh..
 And, do you have control of what your friends are tagging you in? These photos will appear
instantly in your tagged photos section on your profile, as well as shared by your friend to all
their followers.
 Your social disclosures need to be monitored (Friends on social networks can be a threat to your
privacy, 2007).

7. Being Searchable…
(Instagram, 2017)
So.. naturally, Instagram does not take responsibility for this and states that the user must
revoke access themselves to any third-party websites that are affiliated.
Instagram does suggest setting a profile to private to avoid this.
And also mentions that there may be a time lag in deleting the revoked images.. Hmm.

8. Why does all of this matter?
What can Instagram do with your info?
 Instagram states that it provides
personalized content to others for
marketing purposes... Tailoring the ads
to you and thus passing along your
information to third party websites.
(Instagram, 2017)

9. Unfiltered content & Abuse
 Instagram although it tries to be, is not exempt from abuse and inappropriate content.
 Instagram’s terms of use states: “You may not post violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful,
pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content via the Service” (Instagram, 2017).
 Instagram recommends blocking other users so they can no longer contact a user if they experience any violations to the
terms of use. Once blocked the user will no longer be able to view or contact you, they are not notified of being blocked
either.
 Cyberbullying's prevalence continues to rise and has become a substantial issue for society (Barlett, 2017).
 Instagram recommends contacting family/friends or cyberbullying institutions if support is needed, but not themselves.
 Users can report a violation to Instagram as they state they will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and consequently
accounts will be removed and deleted.
 Not all content can be filtered, hence, this can be difficult for parents to monitor explicit content for minors. If an
image/video does appear to be inappropriate it can be reported and removed if Instagram believes it to be in violation.

10. The power of agreeing to the terms of use…
 Instagram states in their terms of use
that they may share your information
with their affiliate businesses, service providers and third party advertisers.
 Giving your information to third parties is not ideal for privacy.
 Instagram may share your tracked cookies information and location data to third party providers.
 “We may also combine your information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated
with you and share that aggregated information” (Instagram, 2017).
 Frequently Instagram uses the word “may” in their agreements, this gives them ultimate power, they
may or they may not! There is no definitive.
 “We use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service”
(Instagram, 2017), again third party, who knows where this goes!

11. Copyright of Images
 “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” (Instagram, 2017).
 So, what you post you still own, this is good news. It is a non exclusive agreement allowing you to
share the image in other places too. Good. Royalty free meaning there is no need to pay for the
license. Good.
However, Instagram states it is transferable, which gives Instagram the potential to give the license to
whoever they choose. And a sub license, this means Instagram has the ability to sell a portion of the
license off and this would be for free because it is royalty free.
 Uh oh...
 So, by signing the agreement basically, Instagram can do what they choose with your content and you
would never receive any money for it.

12. Protect yourself
 “The largest challenge both now and in the future in terms of users protecting themselves and
their information will be to find out and understand how to effectively access and change the
privacy settings offered by these popular social networking websites” (Goettke & Christiana, 2007,
p.10).
 Terms and conditions continually change. “Instagram may modify or update this Privacy Policy
from time to time, so please review it periodically” (Instagram, 2017).
Instagram leaves it up to the user to review changes.
 To control your visibility, go private and be conscious of what is posted.

13. References:
Barlett, C. (2017). From theory to practice: Cyberbullying theory and its application to intervention. Computers in Human Behaviour, 72, 269-275.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.060
El Ouirdi, M., Segers, J., El Ouirdi, A., & Pais, I. (2015). Predictors of job seekers’ self-disclosure on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 53, 1-12.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.039
Friends on social networks can be a threat to your privacy. (2007). New Media Age. Retrieved from https://search-
proquestcom.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/225150490?accountid=10382
Goettke, R., & Christiana, J. (2007). Privacy and Online Social Networking Websites. Computer Science 199r: Special Topics in Computer Science Computation and Society: Privacy and
Technology.Available: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.92.1380&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Instagram. (2017). Instagram. Retrieved 9 October 2017, from https://www.instagram.com/
MeasuringU (2017). Do Users Read License Agreements? Measuringu.com. Retrieved 13 October 2017, from https://measuringu.com/eula/
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (2015). Privacy and the Internet: Travelling in Cyberspace Safely. Retrieved 12 October 2017, from http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm
Protalinski, E. (2017). Facebook buying Instagram for $300 million, 23 million shares | ZDNet. ZDNet. Retrieved 12 October 2017, from http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-buying-
instagram-for-300-million-23-million-shares/
Social media can impact future employment (2014). University Wire. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/1498148453?accountid=10382
Statista. (2017). Instagram: active users. Statista. Retrieved 12 October 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
Tosdr. (2017). Terms of Service; Didn't Read. Retrieved 6 October 2017, from https://tosdr.org/#instagram