Password Security Breach Forced Instagram to Kill Feed Reading Apps

Following a password stealing incident that was ignited by its third party app, Instagram made a major changes to its API policy regarding third party apps yesterday.

According to The Verge, a third party application called InstaAgent was caught sending user name and password of Instagram's user in clear text. This action is potentially compromising hundreds of thousands of users. Although Instagram was not responsible for the security failure, it has warned users specifically for not allowing access to third-party apps like in doing so.

Instagram then made a major revision to its API policy, effectively killing off an entire class of Instagram-reader apps and instituting serious restrictions on any apps that remain. Instagram announced that changes made to the policy is, "to improve people's control over their content and set up a more sustainable environment built around authentic experiences on the platform."

This surely is not the first time Instagram has made policy change regarding its usage. One that drew harsh criticism from its users was in 2012. At that time, Instagram changed its terms of use that allow other business entities to use users' photo for their sponsored content and paying Instagram for that promotion. After a huge criticism from users, Instagram apologized and changed the wording of its terms of use. 

This time, Instagram policy changes affected its third party application developers. Policy changes in API automatically shuts down most of its third party feed reading apps. However according to Tech Crunch, there is only a tiny fraction of Instagram feed reading happens in third-party apps. The changes is made  to make feature development nimbler and create a more consistent user experience. In the policy changes, Instagram will only allow photo editing apps to  pull in users' own Instagrams, brand and ad management apps, and tools for media and broadcasters. Third party apps are not allowed to pull users' feed.

With this policy change, Instagram closed down all new apps submission. It will re-open submission on December 3 and review existing apps. On June 1st, all existing apps must comply to Instagram policy and have passed the review process.

Recently, a new way of using Instagram is found by book publishers. According to Vogue, Instagram is now also becoming a book club. As Simon & Schuster acknowledged, Jessica Knoll's first novel suddenly went straight to be one of Top 100 Amazon best-selling. The surge happened just after actress Reese Witherspoon post her video reading the novel to Instagram, and that posting gained 2 million followers. Richard Rhorer, associate publisher at the pulishing house admitted, "we were a little surprised by the magnitude of the impact of that Instagram post," 

With such a huge impact it is able to make, Instagram surely needs to improve its users' protection. Therefore, this policy changes for its API policy is expected to do that.