Let’s Talk About Instagram Privacy

Do you ever wonder if your Instagram account is truly private? Or ask yourself if you need to provide unnecessary information that is mandatory when signing up for a new account or updating an existing one. Or if the stuff you post is protected. Best believe I sure have. To be honest, I still ask these questions now and then, and we should continue to do so. However, there are steps you can take to ensure the safety of your account. Let’s have a brief conversation about it.

To Be Or Not to Be Private

The first and easiest step to making sure that your account is protected is by making it private. But there are a lot of users who question whether or not having a private account is for them. There is no simple answer to that question, as it depends on how you want other people to see you on social media. Is your account set up to promote yourself or a brand? Or is it a personal account to share content with friends and family?

Making your account private or keeping it open to the public has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. A private account, for example, allows you to control who has access to your content. Allowing them to follow your account or deleting the request if you choose they’re not worthy of your content. However, there are some disadvantages. One is that your content will be excluded from hashtag feeds. This again depends solely on how you’re using your Instagram account. 

All of that aside, I believe that having a private account is essential if you’re worried about your privacy on Instagram. As I previously stated, it is the first and most straightforward step in protecting your content. It enables you to hide your content from the rest of the world. Friends, family, and trusted followers are less likely to share your content. All in all, I’d rather have control over who sees my basic post than being concerned that the wrong people are seeing it.

How much is too much

Social media has evolved into the primary platform for sharing details about your personal life with your friends and family. But we must keep in mind that sharing too much content may end up in the hands of someone we believe we can trust. Buzzfeed explains how simple it is for anyone—even those you’ve trusted enough to let into your private space—to secure and distribute your content. They describe the process of “screenshotting” ephemeral content via HTML links. This confused me at first, but then I learned that these links are attached to any video we post. Even the ones that last only for 24 hours. I know who has the time. Sadly, we may never know. We can, however, protect ourselves from this. Here’s how:

• Keep your story hidden from certain people. Block your content from appearing in someone’s story feed if you think they’re engaging too much.
• For your stories, update the “Allow Sharing” setting. If you turn it off, people will only be able to watch what you post and will no longer be able to share it with others or in their own stories.
• Post contents to a select group of your followers. Instagram has introduced the “Close Friends” feature, which allows you to handpick a small group of friends or followers with whom you want to share personal stories with. Individuals that you have chosen will have access to stories that have been posted specifically for them.

Protect, Protect, and oh yea… Protect

My biggest fear is being hacked by some random person who has nothing better to do with their day. It irritates me that people like this exist. But that’s the risk of signing up with any social media platform. Thankfully, some new steps and measures have been put in place to protect our accounts. In 2017, two-factor authentication (2FA) was finally introduced to Instagram users. It is a security measure that requires two separate forms of identification to access a secure account. Here are the two current 2FAs for Instagram users to set up:

1. Text Message (SMS): The first and most common 2FA for Instagram users to set up is through text message. This allows Instagram to send a verification code through to your phone, that you will need to verify with your account. 
2. Third-Party Authentication: Introduced in 2018, this form of authentication enables users to be verified through a third party app like Due Mobile.

At the end of the day, social media privacy should not be taken for granted. It’s a good idea to go over your privacy settings and make sure they’re up to date to protect your content. You spend all day on the phone anyhow. All you’ve got to do is pick up your phone and take a look at your settings. Why are you making it complicated? It’s easy.

 

Naa Mensah, Oakville, ON, December 2021

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