Hacker News Reader

Comment by kylec | Hacker News Reader

Some of you might find this useful:

https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/

When I read the headline I thought two things: a) Wow, the Instagram guys deserve it, congrats to them. b) I need to delete my account.

The second point is because I have been actively trying to avoid giving fb more data than absolutely necessary. No ill will towards Instagram.

Same reaction here. Pretty sad to delete it, actually. The other day I was using Instagram as an example of a social app with a friend list that WASN'T Facebook. sigh

Edit: spelling.

Funny, I had a similar reaction. I was really late to the Instagram party but the biggest thing I liked about it was that it was an alternative way to keep a circle of friends. For whatever reason, I quickly re-connected with some quality people that I had lost track of over the years, but was happy to find on Instagram. Fittingly, a bunch of us had actually taken photo classes together over a decade ago.

This was EXACTLY my feelings. I sat down after lunch, read the headline, opened up my browser, changed my user profile information and deactivated my account. Good luck Instagram, but I can't stand Zuckerborg.

Yes. I JUST deleted (deactivated/request removal) my FaceBook account over the weekend.

Good for you.

>I need to delete my account //

Surely it's already too late. They bought your data.

Why do we allow companies to sell personal data on as part of the company? Should this be legislated against?

What's the alternative?

Diaspora?

Not sure but a contact saying "this service is now owned by $company, do you wish to allow your data to be retained". Similar offers could be required whenever contractual terms are altered, the default being to continue service.

That would mean that if a malevolent owner decided to change T&C and sell all your private data youd have a legal recourse with which to stop them.

Personally I think that Opera's browser based server offers a way forward whereby a user would have all their data local and a FB like service would operate as a hub/link - like how bt services are pointers to distributed data.

> if a malevolent owner decided to change T&C

Why not mandate that contact in case of any change of T&C? Owners of any level of malevolence can change those, not just after a sale.

It makes me wonder how many people are going to have that reaction. I'm an Android owner and I still haven't checked out Instagram, and now I'm not sure I want to.

You can still post to Instagram without sharing the photo on Facebook. So this "paranoia" - if I may call it that - is only because Facebook now has acces to all of Instagrams information? And Facebook will abuse this position why, exactly?

The current trend with buyouts seems to be eventual integration. Google recently did this with their privacy policy, and it was received with mixed feelings. I see no reason to expect Facebook's acquisition of Instagram not to change how the latter operates: it must become profitable to FB somehow (beyond talent), and data is the most straightforward way. The two blog posts announcing the acquisition aren't legally binding with respect to the future of the products, and nobody should be surprised if a 180º shift happens in a few months. Facebook is in the business of monetizing user data after all.

Exactly. Imagine one day just browsing Facebook casually and enjoying the free services they provide when all of sudden you see an ad on the side that is about an ukulele star throwing a little concert in your home town. Except, you only ever mentioned learning ukulele on Instagram!

I can barely endure the thought.

It's funny, just a few hours ago I was going through my apps looking for rarely used ones to delete. I was on the fence about Instagram; I'm not using it much but I left it there "just in case". Well, seems this acquisition solved the dilemma.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com