The changes in social media polices in current times, has most certainly changed from the past. Many, social media websites have chosen to update or change their policies to enhance the experience for all users. I with start with Instagram as an example. Instagram was created in early 2012, and it was fun and exciting. The premise of this social media website was that, people were able to post pictures of themselves, and share it to the world. In September of 2012, only months after creating this site, Instagram announced in their privacy section, that they had an important update. The update was that Instagram had been acquired by Facebook. They figured that if they were to team up with Facebook, they could build a better foundation, and overall better instagram experience. Users were able to use a link to Facebook, so that they could post on Instagram, as well as Facebook, via a transfer link. This promoted Instagram, and grew the population, because Facebook users who did not have Instagram at the time, found this to be quite intriguing. It also grew the population from users who still did not know that Instagram existed. In my opinion, this was an excellent idea from both, Instagram, and Facebook. © 2016 INSTAGRAM.

Snapchat, is a mobile messaging application used to share photos, videos, text, and drawings to people. Pictures, or videos can only be sent for a certain period of time, approximately five seconds, before the photo expires for good. Snapchat has changed their policy and procedures many times, but to be specific, last November in 2015, new changes were made that allowed users to have more control of what happens on the site. For example, a major difference in today’s Snapchat, versus when it first came to be in 2012, is that a user now has the ability to control who receives your message. O’Connell, J. (2015), Snapchat’s new privacy policy: What you should know. Not only that, Snapchat also added a memory section to it. This allowed people who have posted Snapchat “stories”, to save it in the memory option, so that the picture, or video could be kept on file.

By: Michael Tomczak, 2016

References:

3Q’s: Snapchat’s new privacy policy: What you should know O’Connell, J. (2015)

http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2015/11/3qs-snapchats-new-privacy-policy-what-you-should-know/