I live in a country that, for the most part, respects personal privacy and I have come to love it. I don’t like anyone else to have control of my personal data and information.

I have always had reservations with using social media. I’ve had a few accounts but never really used them. As I got older and learned more about the policies effecting the data you share with social media companies, I became more appalled.

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As I started to get into photography, I noticed almost all photographers (and a lot of non-photographers) where using Instagram. I saw a lot of articles online by photographers about how Instagram “made” their career. I checked it out. I am not a lawyer, but I found that their Terms of Use contained a lot of wording that made me apprehensive.

As far as photography goes, here's the part of the Instagram's Terms of Use that I found the most concerning:

For me it's not complicated to figure out what that means, but others might differ. However, it's buried halfway down a very long document, and you have to want to find it. Thankfully, a laywer from the Children’s Commissioner for England "rewrote" the Instagram's Terms of Use into plain English that we can all better understand what we're getting ourselves into:

Pretty scary. I spend my days working very hard to capture compelling, interesting, and beautiful photographs. I am not going to then upload them to a service that owns them and can sell them to whoever they want.

I need something that I can post my images to, but still retain rights and control. My solution came in the form of sms texting. I can still update my followers instantly but without the civil rights and ethical issues of social media. Thus, I have a texting list and you can sign up to stay updated.

If you want to see my images, go to my Portfolio!