Live data from Hacker News

How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

wired.com

121–130 of 151 posts

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically we _are_ giving our consent by using the service. In fact, we already agreed to the current terms, which state "We reserve the right to alter these Terms of Use at any time." It's not even a classic bait-and-switch. It's clearly stated in the contract we all signed up for. I agree that it's sort of uncool on Instagram's part, but as fellow app developers, shouldn't we also be siding with Instagram for the…

Your view just plain scares me, there wouldn't be so much heat over this right now if it was something the majority of people including app developers thought was the right thing to do. There's plenty of examples of things that I feel is uncool, but I can understand it from the business side. A few weeks ago, when people went nuts over the possibility of ads showing up in peoples instagram feeds, I was like, fine. In…

My view scares me, too, but I think you have the right idea: It's a terrible business decision. Much like the Netflix/Qwikster ordeal, I imagine the result to be some sort of mass exodus.

Obviously, our use of any application is simply a privilege, and participation is not compulsory. As creators of the application, it's Instagram right to control their application how they see fit.

That point is easily overlooked. It's the principle I'm defending, not the decision.

My hope is that great companies will make great decisions. I think we've seen a little bit of that from organizations like Google and MapBox doing the "right thing", and they have great products to show for it.

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#122
post #4

many might be surprised that instagram only keep 612x612 images, so if you were hoping to download full resolution images,. you're out of luck... that, however, also makes the whole issue moot since the images are so small to be of little/no use in any commercial sense. flickr's iOS app, by comparison, stores on their server the full resolution image. #nofilter FTW

> since the images are so small to be of little/no use in any commercial sense The most likely scenario for Instagram photos being used in advertising would be online, not in print. So the size is fine.

Probably even more likely is that they would be used on mobile.

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#123
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main issue is that basically it removes the concept of private photos. The new TOS allows Instagram to use your photos any way they want and removes any responsibility of keeping private pictures private. Those pictures of you doing a keg stand at a Toga party which you shared only with your closest friends? Well now they are in a nationwide PSA about binge drinking. Those pictures of you with your ex girlfriend…

it removes the concept of private photos Maybe I'm just old and cynical, but after seeing how most online services work, I just refuse to upload/share any photograph that I wouldn't be happy seeing splashed on the front page of the newspaper.

I apply the same test to pretty much everything I do online these days, and as a result, I maintain a dignified silence through most social media channels.

I whitewalled my Facebook a long time ago, don't 'like' any pages, and provide minimal personal information only to friends.

I don't use Twitter because I figure, even if I had an account purely to follow people, the individuals/organizations I follow could come back to haunt me. The same applies to YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Foursquare, etc.

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#125
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it removes the concept of private photos Maybe I'm just old and cynical, but after seeing how most online services work, I just refuse to upload/share any photograph that I wouldn't be happy seeing splashed on the front page of the newspaper.

I apply the same test to pretty much everything I do online these days, and as a result, I maintain a dignified silence through most social media channels. I whitewalled my Facebook a long time ago, don't 'like' any pages, and provide minimal personal information only to friends. I don't use Twitter because I figure, even if I had an account purely to follow people, the individuals/organizations I follow could come b…

I maintain a dignified silence...

That is a beautiful phrase that captures the intention perfectly. I'm going to use that.

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#126
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main issue is that basically it removes the concept of private photos. The new TOS allows Instagram to use your photos any way they want and removes any responsibility of keeping private pictures private. Those pictures of you doing a keg stand at a Toga party which you shared only with your closest friends? Well now they are in a nationwide PSA about binge drinking. Those pictures of you with your ex girlfriend…

Eh, not quite. Private accounts can't have their photos used outside of Instagram. >"except Content not shared publicly ("private") will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services. That doesn't mean they won't be used inside Instagram as ads, however.

There's little difference to me between public on the internet and public on Instagram. They both ignore my photo's original privacy controls (to share with a specific set of users).

Regardless, it looks like Instagram's response has said they will be respecting privacy controls (http://blog.instagram.com/post/38252135408/thank-you-and-wer...) although I'm not convinced until this is made clear in the TOS.

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of stock photography models who live with this risk for a bit of compensation. So they make (say) $100 to be in a photo and have a 0.01% chance of being in an ad they find objectionable. I get a free/fun app instead of $100. Instead of a .01% chance, I have a .00000001% of appearing in an objectionable ad (my photos just aren't as good as pros, and I'm just not that pretty). Add to that-- if this happe…

> Add to that-- if this happens, I certainly won't be the first one it happens to and will almost certainly have an opportunity to delete my account when I start hearing about this happening in the wild. Even if I don't delete it, the chance of my crappy photos getting found/used out of the MANY BILLIONS on instagram also seems laughably small. You don't understand the situation. When you delete your account, it won'…

Are you equally bothered by the use of "your friends like X page" on Facebook?

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#128
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might feel differently if you were a professional photographer or a celebrity (even a minor local one). I don't use instagram, and I'm not sure if the change would cause me to leave if I did use instagram. But I'm not going to start using it, because I expect that anyone who values their pictures is going to leave, so it will suck.

Most of the people I follow on instagram are family and friends. They take pictures of their families doing stuff I'm interested in knowing about like going out to eat, gathering for holidays, hiking, or whatever. They use IG as an easier and more visually pleasing way to keep in touch and share moments of their lives. So while there are a number of people that use the free service to promote their professional work…

Maybe. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the vast majority of users that you described are pretty indifferent about which photo sharing service they use, as long as there are other people they know using it. But the "power users" (I hate that term) will care about the service they use, and will influence the others. These people could be friends and family who like to follow news orgs/photographers/celebs through IG, they could be friends and family who are just enthusiastic amateurs, etc., the point is, they don't necessarily have to be celebrities or professionals that you personally follow.

So, even if you don't care about the TOS change, it could degrade your instagram experience enough that you leave. I should emphasize that this is pure speculation in an area I don't understand at all, so take it for what it's worth. And the "sucks" in my earlier comment was of course only directed at what I would want to get out of instagram and wasn't meant as a general statement.

ps, given their latest announcement, this discussion may or may not be entirely academic.

Edit: severe typo and clarification

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For another thing, generally, when you appear in an advertisement for a product, you get paid. Your likeness in the context of a commercial ad campaign has value I don't think this is going to be a popular opinion, but keep in mind that Instagram has untold engineers and UI people, all of whom are fairly expensive, and this advertising clause is really in lieu of a licensing fee, not something consumers provide "fo…

There's nothing wrong with setting up a business model like this, as long as people know what they are opting into it from the very start. Luring people into using your service then yanking the rug out from under them by changing your business model is just plain not cool.

Not only that, but pulling the rug out after the founders made away with a billion dollars is what's normally called fraud.

Re: How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account

#130
Alternative export tool, doesn't require login, open source and can be trivially rehosted by anyone if the traffic overwhelms:

Source: https://github.com/duggan/instazip

"Demo" (aka, you can use this unless traffic kills it): http://instazip.orchestra.io/

Caveats: bit buggy, running on a free Orchestra plan, wants a very recent browser to run.

PRs obviously welcome/sought.

Post reply on HN