Etsy, Instagram or your own website: who decides what happens to your photos?

Many makers show their work in more than one place: a shop on Etsy, a feed on Instagram, perhaps a Facebook page. Each place has its own terms. In the last two years those terms have started to cover training AI on what you post.

This page puts the two biggest places side by side, in their own words: Etsy's new terms, which take effect on 16 December 2026, and Meta's terms for Instagram and Facebook. Then it looks at what changes when your photos sit on a website of your own.

This page is general information, not legal advice. It covers the United Kingdom first. We read every page quoted here in November 2026.

How Bernard helps

Etsy and Instagram bring you buyers, and for many makers they are worth keeping. A website of your own sits beside them. On it, no marketplace or social app licence applies.

• Your name goes inside the file. When you say a photo is yours, Bernard writes your name and copyright line into the file itself (your name stays with your photos).
• The hidden data comes out. Every new upload and import has its hidden location and device data removed before it goes on your site (What your photos say about you).
• You keep the proof. Bernard keeps an untouched private original of each new image (prove I made this work).
• You make the AI choice. While the images switch in Protect your work is on, the photos you have said are yours carry a "not for AI training" note inside the file (can I stop AI companies training on my photos and video?).
• You can see who comes. The AI traffic report shows which AI companies' crawlers visit your site and ask for your images (is AI reading my site?).
• Later: when the images switch is on, Bernard will tell AI training crawlers to stay out in your site's robots.txt file, and then refuse the training crawlers that say who they are.

No website can stop a person or a dishonest crawler from copying a picture, and Bernard does not say it can. Can you stop AI companies training on your work? explains why.

The short answer

Etsy: a licence that does not end

From 16 December 2026, Section 5.C of Etsy's Terms of Use gives Etsy "and our third party partners and vendors" the right to use your content "to develop, train, test and improve artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies". Your content includes listing photos and descriptions.

The licence is "irrevocable" and "perpetual". Etsy's UK privacy policy names no switch or form that turns AI training off. UK users have the general right to object, and Etsy says it will stop "unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing".

The full detail, with every quote, is in Etsy can train AI on your listings from 16 December. What it means for your photos.

Instagram and Facebook: public posts, with a way to object

Meta's page on generative AI lists where its training information comes from. One source is "Public information such as public posts and comments shared on Meta Products". When Meta announced this for the UK in September 2024, it said it would use "public posts and comments, or public photos and captions" from the accounts of adults on Instagram and Facebook.

• What Meta says it does not use. "We're not using people's private messages with friends and family to train our AIs unless you or someone in the chat chooses to share those messages with our AIs." It also does not use public information from the accounts of people in the UK or EU under 18.
• Who else gets the AI. Meta's UK privacy policy says one purpose is "to offer artificial intelligence technology to third parties, including developers and researchers."
• How to say no. You can send an objection request from your Facebook, Instagram or Meta account. Meta says: "If you submit an objection after a training run has started, we may still use your information for that training run, but we will not use it for future training."
• What deleting does. The Instagram licence "will end when your content is deleted from our systems". Meta also says that if you delete a post a model learnt from, "the model won't change in that moment", but the post "won't be used for future training."

Meta's pages talk about public content. They do not say what happens to the posts on a private account, so this page does not either.

How the two differ

Both platforms can train AI on work you post there. After that, they differ.

Meta gives you a way to object that is made for AI training, and its licence ends when your content is deleted. Etsy's licence does not end, and its UK privacy policy points you only to the general right to object.

What they share is the main point of this page. On a marketplace or a social app, the platform's terms decide what happens to your photos, and the platform can change those terms. Etsy published its new privacy policy on 26 October 2026, and it takes effect with the new terms on 16 December.

Your own website: what changes, and what does not

What changes. No marketplace or social app licence covers your photos. The only licence is the one your website host needs to run your site. Read your host's terms the way you would read Etsy's: find the licence, then search for "train" and "artificial intelligence". Bernard's terms say: "You own Your Content. These Terms do not transfer ownership to us. You grant us a licence to host, store, copy, display, adapt (for example resize images or reformat pages) and transmit Your Content only as needed to operate, secure and improve the Service and to provide it to you and the audiences you choose." The same section says: "We do not mine, resell, or train AI models on your site content."

What you decide. On your own site, you choose what the site tells AI companies: a "not for AI training" note inside your photos, and rules for AI crawlers. You also choose which photos go up, and how large.

What does not change. A public picture can still be copied. A crawler that ignores your rules can still take it. UK law on AI training is still being decided, and Can you stop AI companies training on your work? sets out where it stands.

What you can do

• Read the licence where you post. Search the terms for "train" and "artificial intelligence". The licence section tells you how long it lasts.
• Object on Instagram and Facebook, if you want to. Send it from your account. It covers future training, not a run that has already started.
• On Etsy, read Etsy can train AI on your listings from 16 December. What it means for your photos for what the general right to object can and cannot do.
• Keep your originals. Keep the full-size file straight from your camera or scanner, with its date (Someone copied my work. How do I prove it is mine?).
• Have a place of your own. A website sits beside your shop and your feed. Your photos there follow your rules, and buyers who find you elsewhere have somewhere to come back to.

Your next step in Bernard

Open your media library and look at Protect your work. Mark the photos that are yours, then turn on the images switch. Or ask your assistant: "Which of my photos have I said are mine, and do they carry my name and the not for AI training note?"

Bernard is an AI-assisted website and marketing platform for small businesses. He builds a new site or moves an existing one, keeps it fast and readable to search and AI tools, and looks after it. Once measuring is on, he reads your numbers each week and suggests what to do next, with a button that does it. On the Nautilus Medium and Nautilus Large plans he also plans your marketing every six weeks and drafts your posts, emails and pages. Everything lands on a draft you approve. One flat price per site.

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See what Bernard would do with your business. Selling on Etsy or Instagram with no website yet? Tell him about your work and he shows you a site that sits beside your shop and your feed, before you decide anything.