Instagram, it may soon be time to say goodbye...

Instagram, it may be time to say goodbye.

When I joined the service last year, it was a great place for sharing photos and finding inspiration. I enjoyed seeing the work from folks like @koci and @konstruktivist. Beyond creating art, the whole posts showed a new movement of what a mobile device could do: shoot, edit and publish photographs.

But now the changes in Instagram's privacy policy (including the use of photos in advertisements, etc.) gives me pause. Will it be worth to continue to use the service if my work will be on an advertisement?

While the uproar was strong at first, Instagram tried to calm down users and say it never intended to sell photos or use them in advertisements. I will give them some time to right the ship. I hope they do something, but until they come up with something, I'm going to pursue other services like Flickr and 500px.

(I also backed up all my photos with this great 99 cent tool.)

All of this coverage today, however, has prompted me to think about what information I share on other social networks. My job providing news benefits from having tabs on all the different networks. It's like a police scanner for people who share information online. But social networks are a blend of personal and professional.

What will I share on each network? It's a deeper discussion I have to have with myself: what am I willing to share and what do I want to stay private?

With Instagram, my photos are something I don't want to be used beyond what they were originally shared for. I will now have to go through the policies for Facebook, Twitter, Path and, yes, even App.net.