Forget Snapchat: Where Do Instagram and Facebook Stories Go?

In 2015, Snapchat updated their Terms and Conditions to assert a “worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify…and publicly display” all content sent through or uploaded to the app. In short, users relinquished all control of the messages and photos send over Snapchat to the company itself. As the nearly identical Stories features from Instagram and Facebook gain prominence, a look into these competitors’ data policies shows similar privacy dangers. Under the privacy policies of both companies, the photos and videos posted on users’ stories are collected, stored, and potentially used.

Instagram stories

After being acquired by Facebook, Instagram launched its “Stories” feature in August 2016 to accusations of copying. The new tool appeared to be a direct replica of Snapchat’s Story feature. They both shared a time limit, location tags, filters, and other elements. The company also borrowed another tactic from Snapchat: the practice of saving all photos and videos from user’s Stories to the company’s servers. While users can control who will see their story, with the option to set their account to private or hide stories from select followers, they have no control over whether Instagram stores their photos and what the app does with them.

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Facebook Stories

After rolling out stories on the recently acquired Instagram platform, Facebook announced the roll out of its own Snapchat Stories spinoff. This new service, as with Instagram Stories, includes filters, effects, and a time limit. While it is not clear whether Facebook stores all photos and videos on its servers as Instagram and Snapchat do, a quick look at the company’s Data Policy makes it clear that the company is collecting some of this information. Under the policy, Facebook is allowed to collect “things you do and information you provide.” Using the information, the platform is able to “communicate with you,” “provide, improve, and develop services,” and “show and measure ads and services.”

Safety Tips

With these privacy concerns in mind, social media safety becomes more important than ever. Users should keep in mind the community guidelines of each platform. These guidelines typically prohibit material that is intentionally offensive, insulting, or threatening, violates the privacy of another user, displays individuals engaged in dangerous or illegal activity, or potentially threatens anyone’s immediate safety. In short, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram’s privacy policies should make users hyperaware of the permanence of information posted online.