I have nothing to hide is a statement you may have heard yourself or your friends say when it comes to privacy. Nevertheless, it is important not to talk (too) lightly about your digital privacy, after all, malicious parties are lurking to pick up your personal data, including on Instagram. We explain how you can best protect your privacy on Instagram.
Instagram privacy settings
What data has Instagram collected about you, who can access your profile and who can view your story: these are just a few of the settings you can find on Instagram. Many users may be familiar with the setting to hide their own profile, but do they know the other settings as well?
Now that Instagram is increasingly used as a digital diary, Instagram profiles are becoming more and more interesting for malicious parties. Not just to be able to attack you digitally; also face to face. Or: what do you think of the cool holiday photos. Do you really want everyone to see where you are?
Earlier on RMC, we discussed privacy settings that you need to adjust on Facebook. With Instagram, you are lucky that profiles are easier to close so that people can access your data less easily. However, privacy concerns remain as soon as they break through that protective layer, because you allow malicious parties, whether or not accidentally, to access your profile.
Below we explain the privacy settings that you ‘must’ adjust on Instagram. Do you have any additions? Be sure to post it in the comments.
Switch to a private account
After the previous explanation, the importance of a private account does not need to be explained anymore. By banning strangers from your account, they do not have access to your photos, stories, follower list and it is also less easy for them to send you a chat message.
If you are using the app for the first time, your account will be public by default. Initially, this poses few problems – it is only once your account gets more followers and interactions, that unwanted interactions will also come to you. Prevent that by setting your account to private.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Privacy tab
- Turn on the switch behind the Private account
Hide offensive messages
Sometimes you read DMs or comments on Instagram that you wish you hadn’t read. Especially with an open account, you are more likely to receive offensive messages. Fortunately, Instagram has included two options in its privacy settings with which you can hide offensive messages.
What exactly falls under offensive messages, Instagram does not explain to the institution. Presumably, it concerns sexually tinted and violent messages. If you are bothered by offensive messages, it is definitely recommended to follow the steps below.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Privacy tab
- Under Interactions, click Hidden words
- Turn on the switches behind Hiding comments and Hide chat message requests
In this menu, you can also add words that you would like to block. For example, you can hide swear words and other sexual or violent terms on Instagram. After adding the custom dictionary, don’t forget to turn on the bottom two switches.
Change who can tag you
Have you ever been tagged by someone you don’t know, or by people you’d rather not tag in posts? After all, it is possible that a tag in a message on Instagram brings (a lot of) unwanted visitors to your profile. In addition, it may also happen that you are tagged in the spam or offensive message.
Do you want to prevent something like this from happening? Then make sure that only followers you follow yourself can tag you. If it still happens that you are tagged in a spam message, you can also remove yourself from it. We will explain how this works later.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Privacy tab
- Click on the Messages tab
- Under Allow tags from, select People you follow or Nobody
Basically, now only people you know can tag you in posts. However, it is possible that you are tagged in a spam message, for example, because you follow an account that has fallen into the hands of a malicious person. If you are tagged in a message: read below how to remove such a tag.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Navigate to the tab of photos you’re tagged in
- Select the photo you would like to remove the tag from
- Click on your own tag, you will see a pop-up menu
- Choose Remove me from the post to remove the tag
Hide your Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories usually contain a lot of personal information. They often show where you are or what you are doing. While only people who follow you can see what you’re up to, you may want to prevent anyone from getting that information.
Especially if you have a large group of followers who don’t know you enough, it is important to adjust who can see your stories. This can be done in two ways. On the one hand, you can make all your stories visible to a limited extent. That will mean they won’t be able to see your stories without personal information either. At the same time, you can also send Stories to Best Friends on Instagram. This way, only people who you set this to see the Best Friends stories. Both methods are explained below.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Privacy tab
- Then proceed to Story
- Click there on the option Hide story for
- Choose the people you would like to hide your story from
As mentioned before, the above step-by-step plan is intended to completely hide Stories from the selected people. Do you want everyone to see the general story, but do you sometimes want to post some personal messages? Then the use of Best Friends is recommended. Instead of clicking Hide Story From Step 7, click the Best Friends setting. Step 8 is the same for Best Friends as step 8 for hiding Story.
Limit replies to Stories
Let’s stick with the stories of Instagram for a while. The platform lets your followers respond to your Stories. Sometimes it can be a nice option, other times you would rather not have people respond to your story.
Especially if you don’t know the person in question, it can sometimes lead to ‘strange or even unwanted’ situations. Fortunately, Instagram allows you to close the comments of your Stories so that the followers that you do not follow yourself cannot respond to your posts. You can also close the comment option in the Stories completely if desired.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Privacy tab
- Then proceed to Story
- Under Allow replies to messages, select Followers you follow or Off
Limit Message Requests
Do you know who can send your message (requests) on Instagram? If you haven’t touched the settings yet, anyone can send you a message request. While such message requests don’t get mixed up with regular messages – they end up in a separate tab after all – you don’t want to give the Instagram spammers, malicious parties, or stalkers an extra opportunity to present themselves to you.
You can completely disable the message requests for people who do not follow you and people who do not follow you. Read below how you can set this up.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Chat Messages tab
- At the top, you will find the menu items Your followers on Instagram and Others on Instagram
- Choose for both groups whether they can send you requests ( Message requests ) or not ( No requests received)
Check Connected Services
Strictly speaking, the latter option falls outside the “privacy category” of Instagram settings. Still, it can’t hurt to take a look at which services are linked to your account. Often services get access to a lot of personal data, making it undesirable to leave them connected to your account in the long term.
For example, without remembering I had Hootsuite linked to my account. Should a malicious person gain access to this Hootsuite account, that person could “modify”, delete or post a new message.
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
- Then select the hamburger menu at the top right
- In the pop-up menu, click Settings
- Navigate to the Security tab
- There, choose the Apps and websites option
- Check under Active if you have connected accounts
Some accounts expire automatically, so you don’t have to delete them. Instagram then ensures that the service loses access to your data. If there are still active accounts connected to your Instagram profile, you can revoke the permission for ‘access to your account’ via the Active tab.