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Instagram Testing Feature That Alerts Users When You Screenshot a Story

I use Instagram++ so that I can download anyones pics and videos posted.I've never viewed any storied on Instagram until the news about this alert broke very early Monday morning. I went out searching for anyone who had a story posted and screencapped them and never got the warning. I really don't care about this as long as I can keep downloading pics and vids.
 
They should probably just let out everything down to the brand of inners the person who took the screenshot wears to the story posters. For a fee, of course. In the name of improving the experience, of course. :)

Next, they will tie up with Apple and Apple will send the face of the person who took the screenshot or even attempted to take a photo of the phone, because, you know, improving the experience is paramount. The story posters have been desperately desirous of this new experience improvement by Instagram - they have all the time in the world to know who took a screenshot of their story, because, hey, reader count has serious limitations, obviously solved by knowing the ins and outs of the lives of those who take a screenshot.
 
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macduke said:
Thieves will always find a way. I’m not even a thief but a photographer myself and what immediately came to mind was creating fake accounts to snap content and then post it somewhere else. Easy.
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Or just use the web version, inspect the element and you can find the link to the full size picture.
I know many people use social networks on their smartphones, but if one is really motivated to steal your pictures the screenshot notification is useless.
 
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recoil80 said:
Or just use the web version, inspect the element and you can find the link to the full size picture.
I know many people use social networks on their smartphones, but if one is really motivated to steal your pictures the screenshot notification is useless.
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I always forget there is a web site, which is strange since they refuse to make an iPad app.
 
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Fzang said:
This is a hair away from saying “this is my device and I can do/harass whoever/whatever I want”. You might not think about it this way, but some people think there are no strings attached, similar to the physical reality.

The majority of people usually behave. A minority doesn’t. And this is why we can’t have nice things.
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This IS my device and I should be able to do whatever I want, ON THE DEVICE. I'm not saying it's okay to harass people, but taking a screenshot isn't harassment, and if you continue to cede more and more control of your device, things will become unpleasant quickly.

So far Apple has been striking an already questionable balance between maintaining control and giving the user freedom. They really shouldn't be restricting things more.
 
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Fzang said:
This is a hair away from saying “this is my device and I can do/harass whoever/whatever I want”. You might not think about it this way, but some people think there are no strings attached, similar to the physical reality.

The majority of people usually behave. A minority doesn’t. And this is why we can’t have nice things.
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While your premise is certainly true, I don't agree with your conclusion. As with virtually everything else in society we've stopped holding the guilty responsible, instead focusing on enforcement at the mass level. THAT is why we can't have nice things. Given that there are 7.5+ billion people currently on this earth, that approach is also a practical impossibility... unless we choose to live in an Orwellian, 'everything moment of every day is monitored' world.
 
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A much better solution is to use steganography to embed the photo with the account owner and the account viewer. If the photo is copied, either by screenshot, another camera or phone, or using quicktime, the original source and viewer/copier can be identified. I'm surprised this isn't already done...
 
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chelsel said:
A much better solution is to use steganography to embed the photo with the account owner and the account viewer. If the photo is copied, either by screenshot, another camera or phone, or using quicktime, the original source and viewer/copier can be identified. I'm surprised this isn't already done...
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While certainly a great idea, if someone knows there is steganograohy involved all it takes is a simple format change to eliminate any trace of the watermark.
 
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jgelin said:
I don’t think that an application should know when I am taking a screenshot, it is happening at the OS level and it shouldn’t be able to be caught and alerted on by an application.
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I know. Why does Apple, in this case, even allow apps to know when you take a screenshot or record your screen?
 
They can just view them from the Instagram website and screenshot them there without worry. Though that's not really an issue since like 99% of people view Instagram on a mobile device.
 
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JRobinsonJr said:
While certainly a great idea, if someone knows there is steganograohy involved all it takes is a simple format change to eliminate any trace of the watermark.
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Embedding tracking information is already widely used in many printers, yet people still get caught, either through ignorance or laziness. Adding the tracking information is better than doing nothing. Read more about printer steganography here: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170607-why-printers-add-secret-tracking-dots
 
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