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> Add to that-- if this happens, I certainly won't be the first one it happens to and will almost certainly have an opportunity to delete my account when I start hearing about this happening in the wild. Even if I don't delete it, the chance of my crappy photos getting found/used out of the MANY BILLIONS on instagram also seems laughably small.

You don't understand the situation. When you delete your account, it won't delete the ads in circulation - there won't be anything you can do about that.

And your photo won't be used for a general Coke advertising campaign. It will be used to sell Coke to YOUR FRIENDS, on Facebook and elsewhere across the web. Everywhere your friends go on the intertubez, they'll see a picture of you drinking Coke, with the caption "Drink Coke, just like your good buddy Webwright does!" And that will stay as long as Coke feels like it.

"You don't understand the situation."

I sure do. My point was-- the first time this happens, there will be an outcry that makes this one seem small. At that point, I can delete my account. Maybe the poor sucker who was the first victim can't, but I can. MAYBE Instagram at this point is so malevolent that they give me the finger and retain my photos, but that seems kinda unlikely.

Edit: And I couldn't give a single damn about whether my friends see my visage next to a coke logo if I was willing to photograph myself enjoying a coke. It doesn't inconvenience me or my friends one single bit. Even if they throw my photo into a cigarette ad, I'd probably send them an annoyed note, nuke my account, shrug and move on with my life.

The contract explicitly specifies that they can, and will, retain all your photos if you don't delete your account by the deadline. After that, they have a permanent license to do whatever they want with your photos.

Yep-- lawyers who write ToS' tend to make them as company-friendly as possible to give them the most wiggle room (and best defense in case they get sued). But it'd be silly/suicidal to use photos from deleted accounts when there are literally BILLIONS from non-deleted accounts.

You still don't understand the situation. By taking down Instagram now we'll send a clear message that taking liberties with our privacy and personal identity and likeness is /not acceptable/.

>By taking down Instagram now we'll send a clear message that taking liberties with our privacy and personal identity and likeness is /not acceptable/.

I call BS. Having already accepted the Patriot Act, mass domestic surveillance, phone taps without a warrant, most of our data in Google/Facebook/MS/Apple/Dropbox/Amazon clouds, etc, we're now supposed "send a clear message that taking liberties with our privacy and personal identity and likeness is /not acceptable/."???

It's the opposite: few things have been MORE acceptable by american society than companies and governments taking liberties with our privacy and personal identity.

Sending a message to Instagram? It's like being inside a burning house and we respond by stomping on our cigarette.

pretoriusB: It sounds that you are a victim of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

No -- but you might be responding to something I have NOT said.

I'm not against action. I'm for action where it _matters_.

Abandoning all those really relevant privacy fronts and then "sending a message" to ...Instagram, is not it.

That's what I tried to convey with my "stomping the cigarette" analogy. Better try to put down the house fire first...

You make a seriously excellent point!

Are you equally bothered by the use of "your friends like X page" on Facebook?

I know I am.

I kind of agree with you here. Perhaps it's just my natural aversion to mass hysteria, but I think that allowing them to use the photos they provided you with an app, bandwidth, servers, and a web application to create is pretty reasonable. Now, I assume that everyone (including Instagram) is aware that using them in any harming way to the original author can only ruin their business. Sure, perhaps legally they COULD use that picture of me sipping on my latte to advertise extra large dildos, but I'm going to assume that they're aware that would be a poor choice. However, if they want to use the picture of my feet in the sand as stock photography somewhere, go for it. I'd be flattered. I would happily count the $10 I would have made on a stock photo website an appropriate fee to access to their service.

Most stock photography companies require that models sign a release to prevent legal problems from arising due to the photo.

In this case, it presents a problem if you photograph someone and Instagram sells that photo without a release. Instagram or the third-party that buys the photo could be liable as a result.

I'm surprised that Instagram's lawyers didn't consider this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_release

I think the more interesting thing about the ad approach described by the OP that you are commenting on is that it's not unlikely that this advertising approach if automated just ends up completely debasing the value of photo ads entirely. An ad with a gorgeous woman (or handsome guy) prominantly drinking a coke is going to be far more effective than a nobody casually drinking a coke. The chance of a random instagram photo that contains a coke in the image serving as effective advertising is minute. The coke can needs to be prominent. The person in the photo needs to be someone that the viewer envies, desires or aspires to be like. Lastly the photo needs to somehow make coke a key subject/focal point of the photo. The changes of the stars aligning to make an instagram photo serve as good advertising for a product is very unlikely versus the opposite. That means that most of the time the advertiser would be receiving shitty advertising.

you describe old fashioned ads pics, but the next generation of ads could be very different. maybe some marketing finally discovered that repeating 100 times the same glamour expensive pic is boring and not efficient. display an amateur pic that is new every f5 can work much better to attract attention, with a good algorithm, and the coke can is not necessary, a vague similarity with someone you know would be enough.

I regret not having instagram account I could wipe right now.

What about the risk of your image being attached with a company/idea that disagree with your believes nor doesn't reflect your ideas?

I think the chance of your photo being used in an ad targetting your friends is much higher than .00000001%.

Models != InstagramUsers