Once Facebook bought Instagram many expected the world’s largest social network to start making changes to its new acquisition right away. Facebook took its time and has slowly started placing its stamp on the mobile photo-sharing social network. One of the latest updates is to the privacy policy of Instagram which makes is quite clear that Facebook is now in charge of the site.
The updates to the policy come with a preface that highlights two important details. First it mentions that users can still choose which members can view their images and they still have the ability to choose if they want their data being posted to Facebook. The major addition to the new policy is the concept of “affiliates” which many are assuming means “Facebook”.
The updated privacy policy for Instagram states that, “We may share User Content and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of, or that become part of that group (“Affiliates”). Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates’ own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences). But these Affiliates will honor the choices you make about who can see your photos.”
The previous policy talked about sharing user data with “service providers” or with third-party advertising partners but it never talked about “Affilitaes.”
As many know Facebook is all about user data and Instagram has a rich bank of information about its users. This is the commodity that advertisers covet the most and Facebook will be looking at many ways to monetize this data in both Facebook and Instagram.
The new policy is expected to come into effect as of January 16, 2013.
Source: Mashable