The new privacy policy and terms of service documents add a few new elements such as affiliate sharing and new arbitration rules, but do not contain any of the advertising language that led many users to accuse Instagram of trying to sell their photos without compensation.

Here’s that language that Instagram attempted to slide into their privacy policy, but public backlash forced them to remove:

Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

What we pointed out as sounding a lot like Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ad product sounded a lot like the selling of photos to many people. Instagram, who I don’t believe ever had real plans to “sell” user photos in that way, screwed up by using tricky, vague language to describe a future ad product that doesn’t even really exist yet.

They acknowledged that inside an apology to users in which they pledged to remove the new ad terms from their proposed documents.

“You also had deep concerns about whether under our new terms, Instagram had any plans to sell your content. I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don’t own your photos – you do,” said co-founder Kevin Systrom.

“Because of the feedback we have heard from you, we are reverting this advertising section to the original version that has been in effect since we launched the service in October 2010. Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work.”

Basically, we got caught putting the cart before the horse and we’re sorry.

So that doesn’t appear in the revised documents set to go into effect this weekend. But what does?

First, there’s a new arbitration clause that forces users to opt-out if they want the ability to join class action suits in the future.

“ARBITRATION NOTICE: EXCEPT IF YOU OPT-OUT AND EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DISPUTES DESCRIBED IN THE ARBITRATION SECTION BELOW, YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND INSTAGRAM WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION,” says Instagram in big, bold lettering in the new terms of service.

Instagram also put a clause in their privacy policy that mimics a change made by Facebook (after that meaningless site governance vote), which allows for sharing of user information back and forth between “affiliates.”

You should read the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service before they take effect in four days.

Google has added specific examples of the kinds of advertiser behavior “typically associated with arbitrage”. These include:

• Websites designed for the sole or primary purpose of showing ads
• Websites with interstitial ads (unexpected pages that appear when navigating from one page to the next)
• Websites with scraped content from other sites
• Websites with gibberish content that makes no sense or seems auto-generated
• Templated or pre-generated websites that provide duplicate content to users
• Websites with deceptive navigation, where users can’t find an advertised product or service
• Websites with indistinguishable ads, where you can’t tell ads from the rest of that site’s content
• Websites that are malicious or frustrating, where any click on the site results in clicking an ad
• Ads that are targeted with keywords unrelated to the topic and/or business model of the website
• Ad text that is unrelated to the topic or business model of the website

“We’ve made it even clearer how advertisers must be fully transparent in their ads when describing the experiences on their landing pages,” says Google’s Global Advertising Policy Lead, Mansi Goel. “We’ve beefed up our rules about the use of keyword insertion in ads.”

“We’ve reworked our AdWords policy governing Software Principles to ensure that users are given important information before downloading software on their computers and that the software is not harmful or hard-to-uninstall,” Goel adds.

This page shows a big list of specific changes.

The new policy will ban so called “self-harm” blogs, defined as those that advocate or glorify things like anorexia, bulimia, self-mutilation, and suicide. Blogs that would fall into this category, for example, are thinspo blog that provide images to help people achieve certain weight goals. Many of the “self-harm” blogs on Tumblr offer advice on these controversial topics.

That announcement turned out to be rather controversial, as many Tumblr users cried censorship and some debated whether Tumblr had any business regulating things that some people think is a life choice.

Another point of contention concerned where the line’s going to be drawn. What about blogs that talk about issues like anorexia or suicide? Would those be banned too? Tumblr has clarified their policy to say that you can talk about it, just don’t promote it:

While we won’t allow blogs dedicated to triggering self-harm, we will not act against blogs engaged in discussion, support, encouragement, and documenting the experiences of those dealing with difficult conditions like anorexia, bulimia, and other forms of self-injury.

Of course, the next logical question centers on how the Tumblr staff is going to be able to keep up with this and make the right judgement calls on particular blogs. They say that they are going to enforce the new policy on a “blog-by-blog basis,” but also warn that they’re “not under the illusion that it will be easy to draw the line between blogs that are intended to trigger self-harm and those that support sufferers and build community.”

Here’s the complete amended policy:

Promotion and Glorification of Self-Harm. Don’t post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm. This includes content that urges or encourages readers to cut or injure themselves; embrace anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders; or commit suicide rather than, e.g., seeking counseling or treatment, or joining together in supportive conversation with those suffering or recovering from depression or other conditions. Dialogue about these behaviors is incredibly important and online communities can be extraordinarily helpful to people struggling with these difficult conditions. We aim to sustain Tumblr as a place that facilitates awareness, support and recovery, and to remove only those blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm.

Along with regulating these self-harm blogs, Tumblr is also going to start displaying messages alongside searches for tags promoting self-harm like “pro-ana” and “thinspiration.” Here’s an example of what those messages will look like (in part):

Eating disorders are not lifestyle choices, they are mental disorders that when left untreated, can cause serious health problems, and at their most severe can even be life-threatening. For treatment referrals, information and support, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association’s Helpline at 1-800-931-2237 or www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.

Smart, responsible decision by Tumblr or first step down a slippery slope to censorship? Let us know what you think in the comments.

The big change in how Google is going to use your information comes in the form of personalization across multiple services. Google has already been able to use information from one service to assist another, but the new policy makes it easier. For instance, if Google knows you search for Quentin Tarantino frequently, you might see suggestions for clips of his movies when you head over to YouTube. And then of course there are the ads, which will most likely become more targeted as Google shares all of your information across all of their services.

>>> Check out WebProNews’ special page covering Google Privacy … updated live. Subscribe to the Google Privacy RSS feed too!

From Google’s perspective, the new Privacy policy is not only “easy to understand,” but it will help them build a “better, more intuitive user experience” for users. In a blog post today, Google reminds users that the new policy does not entail the collection of more information, and they still will not be selling your private data to third parties.

But that hasn’t stopped some individuals and organizations from worrying about the implications of the changes. Privacy groups like EPIC as well as the Federal Trade Commission have expressed thier concerns with the new policy. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz recently called the new policy “brutal.” Earlier this month, 36 state Attorneys General sent a letter to Google, saying that the new all-inclusive policy “appears to invade consumer privacy.”

For those of you concerned about how Google is sharing your information, there are steps that you can take (within Google) to halt the spread of your data. With a couple clicks of your mouse, you can control your information when it comes to search history, personalized results, and targeted advertising.

First up, you can turn off personal results in search right now. Personalized results are Google’s way of saying that they return specific searches to you based on your web history, use of other Google products, and (the recently begun) Google+ circles. If you choose to turn of personal results, here’s what Google says will happen:

If you turn off personal results and stay signed in to your Google Account, you won’t see results personalized based on your Google+ circles (or suggested connections), Google products, or your search history.

Note that if you turn off personal results but sign out of your Google Account, you will still see personal results based on the context of your search (previous searches, geography).

Within search results, simply click on the settings cog at the top right and go to “search settings.”

About halfway down the page, you’ll find the option to turn off your personal results:

From that same page, you can head on over to your web history and remove all of it, which will also pause your web history. You can also access your web history via the settings cog in the upper right corner of search results.

Next, you easily opt out of targeted ads across Google services. Sign in to your Google account, and head on over to the Ad Preferences page. On the left-hand side, you’ll see the link to “opt out.”

If you click “opt out,” heres how that will affect the advertising you see:

Opt out if you prefer ads not to be based on interests and demographics. When you opt out, Google disables this cookie and no longer associates interest and demographic categories with your browser. Google and its advertisers may work with certain third-parties for advertising purposes. If you opt-out of customized ads, we extend your decision, so that services provided by these third-parties do not work in conjunction with our cookie.

And within other Google services like YouTube, you can always go in and clear or pause your viewing history:

Of course, you can also check out your Google Dashboard where you can view and manage all your data across all your Google services. Google’s Privacy Tools also allows you to take steps to protect your privacy.

Google’s always collected information on you – this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. The new privacy policy just makes it easier for Google to use all of that information across various services. By taking a couple of steps, you can limit how Google shares all of that info with itself.

“Facebook asked me to pass this on to you. They require it of all visitors to their facilities. It only applies to things that you might accidentally stumble upon while you are there and covers nothing discussed during our news conference. Please either bring a signed copy or be ready to sign upon arrival.”

Journalists were a little upset needless to say, giving that their journalistic freedom was being, for lack of a better term, stolen. Journalists then got a little pep in their step as two hours later another e-mail was sent to agencies from Sarah Lane, the AG’s Director of New Media, stating.

“I’m writing on behalf of Dan Sytman. You may disregard the nondisclosure agreement that we sent earlier.”

So you may be curious as to what the agreement may have said. Well, partly it entailed:

“You may become aware of non-public information related to Facebook and its products, services, programs, features, data, techniques, technology, code, ideas, inventions, research, testing, methods, procedures, know-how, trade secrets, business and financial information and other activities through disclosure, observation or otherwise in the course of your visit … All Facebook Confidential Information remains the property of Facebook. You agree not to disclose any Facebook Confidential Information to any third party, and to take all reasonable precautions to prevent its unauthorized dissemination …”

The full agreement can be seen below.

If you were a journalist or if you are a journalist, how does this information make you feel? Do you feel it’s right, whether it’s legal or not, to ask journalists and media to pretty much forget what they see? We want to know what you think, leave us comments below.