Instagram target of class-action lawsuit
Photo-sharing service Instagram received a lump of coal in its stocking this holiday season. After Instagram changed its Terms of Service recently with the alleged intention of selling user photos, there was a loud outcry from the user community and many users deleted their accounts with the intention of moving to Flickr and other services. Now Instagram is on the receiving end of a class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges breach of contract violations and was brought by class-action legal firm Finkelstein & Krinsk on behalf of Lucy Funes and others. This is quite interesting, considering that almost immediately after the uproar over photo ownership began, Instagram reiterated to the public that nothing much had changed in the Terms of Service.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom thinks that people might have misinterpreted a section of the new Terms of Service that stated that the company may try integrating advertising into the service. Indeed, a veritable Twitter storm erupted, with many users (most of whom probably had not read the legal document) believing that Instagram was going to sell user photos without compensation.
The new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for the service don't take effect for another three weeks, so it's certain that this lawsuit and the continued confusion over what exactly Instagram is saying will generate a lot more turmoil.
