Good morning everyone, happy Tuesday and welcome back — it’s always a pleasure to spend some time together, talking about photography, technology and, well, a bit of everything.
A few days ago I opened Instagram, as I unfortunately do quite often — to see what’s going on, find some inspiration, check what my photographer friends are up to and appreciate their work — and instead of ending up on my feed, I got the same screen I’d already seen some time ago: Meta asking me to choose. Either subscribe and get rid of the ads, or allow them to use all my data — through their apps, through web pages, everything.
Now. I’d already written an article a couple of years ago about Meta and their terrible relationship with users’ privacy. But here we are again, talking about the same stuff.
The big problem is that most people don’t really realise how serious the privacy issue is.
And how much it gets underestimated. When you try to explain that all this information is being used to build a profile — which apparently only serves to target ads — the truth is there could be a lot more behind it. Because the profile they build is detailed enough to identify your ideas, the sites you visit, which ads you engage with, which posts perform better than others. They’re basically building a very precise digital identity card for each one of us.
And for most users, this gets dismissed with a simple “well, worst case they send me some weird ads — whatever.”
But there are scenarios that not everyone thinks about, and maybe we should start considering them.
These are all hypotheses, to be clear — I don’t have the tools or the expertise to draw certain conclusions. But for example: what would happen if tomorrow someone in power decided that a certain website, a certain idea, is “dangerous”? They could easily trace back, through the data collected by all these companies, exactly who saw, shared or liked a post connected to that ideology. Or who visited that site. It’s a much bigger and more complex issue than just advertising.
That’s the potential problem I see with all these companies that on one hand give you a free product, and on the other know more about you than you know about yourself.
And then there’s the other question: if I pay the subscription, do I really think they stop collecting my data? My honest guess is no. They’d simply stop showing me ads, but they could keep collecting data, storing it in their databases, maybe even selling it. I can’t say for sure — but the hypothesis doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me.
The problem is I then run into another big obstacle. Take Instagram: it’s basically 100% of my photography contacts. Because at least where I live, if you want to message someone, check a portfolio or try to collaborate on something, you have to go through Instagram.
Everyone is there, and there’s no real alternative.
I’ve been trying for years to convince my friends, the people I know, and my small group of followers to think about this — explaining that I’m not saying stop posting, but that there are alternatives out there that don’t track and profile you the way Meta apparently seems to do. But it never works. The answer is always the same: “everyone’s on Instagram.” And I say: yes, that’s true — but if nobody moves, everyone will always be on Instagram and an alternative will never have a chance. If nobody uses it, it’ll never grow.
And yet this logic just doesn’t get through. Which is frustrating.
So I find myself in a situation where on one hand I’d really love to leave Meta — I’ve been saying it for years, I’ve tried for years, I spent several years without WhatsApp, several years without Instagram — but in the end I had to give in, because otherwise it meant being digitally cut off from everything around me.
Photography is not my job, it’s a hobby — a very important hobby, because I genuinely love it. But it’s still a hobby. And yet if I closed my Instagram account, I’d probably stop photographing altogether. It’s already difficult for other reasons — mostly finding people who still enjoy creating photos just for the passion, without needing to be professionals or thinking they already are after taking two shots — but that’s another story.
So honestly, I don’t know what to do. That’s the dilemma I’m opening April with.
That said — and keeping things in perspective, because at the end of the day we’re talking about a social network and some photos — the privacy conversation behind all of this is way bigger than just a platform.
If you want to share your thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Suggestions are always welcome. More than anything, I’d love for the people I could realistically collaborate with to understand that there are very valid alternatives out there. You don’t need to stay stuck on a platform that decides the format, decides what you might be interested in, decides which posts deserve visibility and which don’t, and that can change all the rules overnight, making everything you’ve built worth nothing.
There’s a lot to talk about. For now I’ll stop here — a decision will have to be made, that much is sure.
Take care and talk soon!