The widely popular social media outlet Instagram released an updated version of its privacy policy and terms of service Dec. 17 and was greeted with backlash from users. The new policy states that any picture can be shared once the user begins using Instagram, and any user (as young as 13 years old) can appear in an advertisement without his or her knowledge.

“The changes make me feel like I have a lot less privacy in my social networking experiences,” said Kylie Vetter, senior in elementary education.

The new Instagram policy will go into effect Jan. 16.

“It makes me more conscious of what I post to Instagram as my photos could be used for ads without my knowledge or consent,” Vetter said.

Vetter expressed frustration that the new policy changes allow Instagram to use any user’s photos, regardless of their account settings. The only way to prevent this is to delete your account.

“I don’t have my account set to private, so I understand that anyone has access to my photos, and I am aware of this when I post each picture,” Vetter said.“However, I feel that it is unfair to use photos without the consent of any Instagram user, especially those set to private.”

Vetter said that these changes make her feel “unsafe” to some degree when posting photos.

Students also went as far as suggesting ways to improve the new policy.   

“I feel like they should ask the user when they upload an individual photo if they are willing to have it available to the public or for them to share,” said Courtney Boss, senior in industrial engineering.

Vetter agrees saying that the photos that users post are meant for people they know, not everyone.

“What is posted to Instagram is meant to be seen by the friends and followers of the user, not the general public, especially if a user’s account is set to private,” Vetter said. “Under this condition, the use of photos for the benefits of the business should be considered an invasion of privacy.”

Aaron Grafing, freshman in Pre-Architecture, said compensation is the way to go when using the private photos that users post.

“If they were to compensate users in some way for using their photos/information for advertisement purposes I wouldn’t have a problem with the privacy policy changes,” Grafing said.

Instagram has yet to address the issue of compensating users for the use of their photos in advertisements.

Boss said that regardless of the changes, it will not affect how she uses the app.

“This won’t really affect my use of Instagram though because the photos I upload are nothing that I personally need to keep private,” Boss said. “It might just make me more conscious about what photos I choose to upload.”