Whether or not the collective online freakout over Instagram’s new terms of service was justified, it was certainly loud enough to make Instagram change its mind. The company has done away with the advertising clause that was getting everyone’s dander up. You know, the one that people took to mean Instagram could license your photos to advertisers without your permission? That’s now back to its October, 2010 version, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post. The company had asked for pretty broad permission to use people’s photos while it experimented with some advertising models, but now it says it will figure out its model first before getting users to sign off. “Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work.” So how will Instagram finally start making some money? It’s still not sure, but not hemorrhaging users would be a strong first step.
