In December of last year Instagram announced a move set to shock the internet world. If you missed it, they wanted the rights to sell any and all photographs you uploaded to the internet by updating their privacy policy to include the ability to sell your photographs to advertisers. This did not bode well with Instagram users and the heckling began which resulted in a quick retreat from the owners of Instagram, Facebook the next day.
A great win for privacy, and a great win for users. However, unfortunately it does not end there, the UK Government has just passed a new law nicknamed the Instagram Act which allows anyone to use your images without your permission. The changes made to Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act went through without most realising it was even created.
If an advertiser wants to use your image they must only make a ‘diligent search’ for the owner of the image, if they can not find the owner guess what? They can use it anyway.
So what does this mean for social media? A little known part of uploading images to these sites is that the social network often strip the images of all meta tags and ownership tags making the image an ‘orphan image’. Without the meta tags these orphan images make it rather difficult to find the owner.
The result of this is that you no longer have any control on the images that you upload, as long as the advertiser has used a diligent search (whatever that means) they can use your image without your knowledge or permission.
