MANILA, Philippines – Instagram has announced updates to its privacy policies and terms of service, and the amendments will become active starting Jan 16, 2013. For some users, these changes may very well turn them off from using the service entirely.

In the announcement post, Instagram says that the updated guidelines do not change anything regarding photo ownership and who can see the photos. At the same time, however, the changes they plan on instituting can set a precedent for seemingly shady or intrusive practices.

As The New York Times explains, there are at least 5 points of contention that need to be looked at by users, though 3 seem especially noteworthy.

As the picture above states, one’s photos, as well as the people who may be in the photos, can be used in advertisements for Instagram. Related to this, if a user is underage, the terms of service indicate they agree that a parent or guardian has agreed to the potential use of their photos, username, and image as part of future advertisements.

Furthermore, advertisements on the site may not even be called out as such, which some can take as especially deceptive.

There is also a certain difficulty in opting out of the service. According to the guidelines, you can only opt out by not using the service, as logging into Instagram in whatever way means you accept the terms of service and the above-mentioned rules.

Users who are less than pleased with the changes may want to ask Instagram to revise their upcoming guidelines before the new guidelines become effective. – Rappler.com