There is a growing issue among social media sites such as instagram and twitter or any social media site that post pictures. Popular brands such as American Eagle or one particular, Crocs, have started to use other users pictures as part of their marketing strategies. They call this "consumer engagement" and they pull users photos that my have a hashtag for example #crocs or anything pertaining to the brand. Now usually permission is needed for a company to use someone else's picture in an ad.
In a particular case Shereen Way posted a picture of her daughter with the hashtag #crocs. Crocs then proceeded to use this picture in an add without Mrs. Way's permission. This led to some controversy of wether it was okay to do this. Crocs came back saying it usually comments on someones picture asking for permission before they use it in an add, which in this case they did not. Users then can reply to that comment with a #CrocsOk and this is taken as consent. American Eagle had input on this saying that some users like the attention or extra likes they get from being reposted by their brand. Some people who do #AEOstyle or #ariereal hashtags do want to be reposted by the brand and American requests permission and does post the pictures because it is seen as some form of customer loyalty.
In Mrs. Way's case she did not grant Crocs permission to post that picture even after they requested to post it at a later date. Instagram stated that they are just responsible for how a brand reuses a picture and in this case by allowing Crocs to post the picture, still did not violate the user agreement. This whole situation just makes us think are some of our pictures being used without our permission? And how private are our profiles really?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/media/retailers-use-of-their-fans-photos-draws-scrutiny.html
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