My Twitter stream today is full of people quitting Instagram because of the new Terms of Service, see You’re the Advertisement. Six months ago, it was Twitter, and six months before that it was Facebook. Quitting over privacy.

Except they didn’t quit. They are all still on Twitter and Facebook and will remain on Instagram, because we, their friends are still there and the service remains awesomely useful.

If you are worried about privacy, but wish to remain on these services, just depersonalize. Turn off locations, use a login and display name that is not yours (but your friends will recognize and accept), remove or fake the remainder of your data, and never post photos of yourself, friends and family. Let these services use your depersonalized data however they want, because it’s not you. A falsely advertised recommendation from “xyzzy68000” means nothing compared to a real recommendation from “hiltmon”.

Follow the author as @hiltmon on Twitter or @hiltmon on App.Net.