Instagram is changing its privacy policy to allow it to share some user data with parent company Facebook just a week after the social network implemented its own change for the same purpose.

The photo-sharing app for iPhones and Androids will be able to share content and information like cookies or device identifiers with affiliates like Facebook, which purchased the company for $1 billion in April. The change, slated to go into effect Jan. 16, is the reflection of similar changes announced by Facebook last month and implemented last week, which allow the company to share user information with Instagram. Continue Reading

“Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups,” Instagram wrote in a blog post Monday. “This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used,” the item added, telling users that the changes don’t concern photo ownership or visibility.

For users, the codified information pipeline between the two platforms means that eventually, Facebook users could see advertisements based on their Instagram activity something that could rub some the wrong way, said Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy for the Center for Democracy & Technology. The change isn’t a big surprise, he added, since Facebook already showed last month that information sharing was on the horizon. But the worry, he indicated, would be if activity on one site is automatically shared on the other.

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Read also:

Facebook's Instagram Changes May Exploit Teens' Content (Bloomberg)

Facebook's Instagram claims 'perpetual' rights to users' photos (Telegraph.co.uk)

Facebook's Access to Instagram Data Could Uncrack Images for Ad Targeting (Adweek)

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