With Instagram altering it’s privacy policy and causing all sorts of squirms, it’s important to talk about how to protect yourself when it comes to showcasing your creative images online. Despite the retraction from Facebook and Instagram to make it clearer on ownership rights and advertising possibilities, it raises the question: How do I protect myself? On the one hand, the only true way of protecting yourself is to not share at all, but you’d be seriously missing out on the opportunity to build your brand on social networks, your website, your blog and in your emails. What’s the fun in that?! Branding your images before they go live online is the best way to protect yourself.

To do this, watermark your photos using another app BEFORE you upload them to your social networks and website. Here are a few options of apps that you can use:

• iWatermark

  Our favorite, due to the easy to use interface (and the availability of a free lite version).

• MyPhotoAd

  A bit clumbsy, but it’s a free way to watermark your photos easily before adding them online.

• PhotoMarkr

  Able to upload your own image and add transparency.

• Impression

  Only able to do use font watermarks, but still gives some control on font and font effects.

• Texts on Photo

  A paid application, but pretty easy to use and has awesome font effects that allow you to be creative.

The trick is setting up a watermark in your chosen app and then quickly adding it to all of your important photos before it goes out into the big world of social networking.