Instagram’s new privacy policy to come into effect on 19 Jan

Instagram has just sent out an email to all users highlighting the fact that its new privacy policy will come into effect on 19 January. Instagram’s new policy had caused quite a stir when tech sites and users had reported that the new terms of service would allow the Photo-sharing app to sell users photos to advertisers.
This had led to a massive criticism of Instagram with many users vowing to delete their accounts. In fact, even after Instagram retracted the clause, many users quit the app and according to AppData, the number of daily active users declined for the app. However Instagram had rubbished the reports that its daily usage had fallen.

Instagram’s new policy will come into place on 19 Jan. Getty Images

Today’s email is also treading around privacy and advertising. It reads,

Our community has grown by many millions of people since we wrote our original Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. As we announced in December, we have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. These policies also now take into account the feedback we received from the Instagram Community. We’re emailing you to remind you that, as we announced last month, these updated policies will be in effect as of January 19th, 2013.
You can read our blog post that highlights some of the key updates. And remember, these updates don’t change the fact that you own your photos that you post on Instagram, and our privacy controls work just as they did before.

Today’s Instagram blogpost also dwells on this fact. The post states: Nothing has changed about your photos’ ownership or who can see them.
The new policy will come into place on 19 January. Users should remember that now that Instagram is owned by Facebook and with the new privacy policy the two will be sharing user info and data between themselves.
If you’re not convinced about Instagram’s policy, you can check out this post here about how to delete the app and save your Instagram photos at the same time.