Instagram promises answers to confounding terms of service changes

Instagram
You got some explaining to do

Instagram hath felt the wrath of a confused and angry public, and promised to reveal all things soon.

"We've heard you that the updates to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Service are raising a lot of questions," the site tweeted Tuesday.

"We'll have more to share very soon."

The uproar serving as background to this tweet are changes to the site's user policies that take effect Jan. 16, 2013 - ones that have some freaking out and vowing to abandon Instagram's photo-filtered ship.

Yes, please explain

The company's new terms basically laid out that a business can use Instagram user images, username, location and other data in advertisements on the site without users' knowledge or compensation.

Ads aren't going to look like ads either, so that photo of people playing with their dogs could be an organic user post or an ad for dog toys.

The Verge pointed out Instagram can't just sell all user data to any Joe Blow business that wants to market on the site, with the ads looking more like Facebook-eque Sponsored Posts than anything.

Instagram can't modify user photos, the publication explained, which is actually an improvement over the old Ts & Cs.

However, a company logo next to a picture you've posted could be OK, even if you've never heard of whatever brand your mug is pasted next to.

The thing is, Instagram hasn't offered any explanation to on its new terms, so there's clearly a lot of angst among users about what exactly will happen to their photos and information once they post it to the site.

So yes, Facebook-owned entity, please fill us in on your intentions.

Michelle Fitzsimmons

Michelle was previously a news editor at TechRadar, leading consumer tech news and reviews. Michelle is now a Content Strategist at Facebook.  A versatile, highly effective content writer and skilled editor with a keen eye for detail, Michelle is a collaborative problem solver and covered everything from smartwatches and microprocessors to VR and self-driving cars.