Instagram, the photo-sharing social network, has had to eat humble pie. Within hours of announcing a new set of terms that hinted at monetising the photos that are shared on the network, the firm has clarified that it has no such plans.

Kevin Systrom co-founder of the three-year-old Instagram, which hit headlines globally early this year when it was acquired by Facebook, wrote a big blog post, assuring its subscribers that there is no plan to sell the photos.

“Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation,” he said.

“This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear,” he said.

In the same breath, he blamed it on the legalese that leaves huge scope for “misinterpretation”.

The social network introduced a new version of our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service that will take effect in thirty days. These are supposed to “communicate as clearly as possible Instagram’s relationship with the users so that they understand how your data will be used.”

This, however, has not been taken lightly by the users across the world. Angry users wrote on their Facebook accounts and on the Instagram’s Facebook page, severely criticising the network for proposing to sell the content.

“If Instagram doesn't change its new privacy rules pronto, Zuckerberg will go down as the man who killed the fish before it learnt how to swim,” an irked user commented on Facebook.

“I’m writing this today to let you know we’re listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion,” he said.

>kurmanath.kanchi @thehindu.co.in

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