My Instagram profile currently contains the most detailed information about me of any other social media profile. As a consequence, I began to feel uneasy when I learned how many people were stalking me that I was unaware of.
Securing your anonymity on Instagram is as easy as changing your profile setting to “personal.” However, you can be even more specific than that, as there are a variety of other safeguards you can implement. You may keep your account public but make it slightly more safe, or even include additional security to what merely flipping the private profile switch provides.
If you really want to safeguard your account, here are several steps you may take.
Way To Protect Your Instagram Profile
The best way to secure your profile is to set it to anonymous Instagram viewer. This ensures that no one will be able to see the pictures or stories in the future until you authorize them.
When you make your account private, new visitors to your profile can see just your name and profile pic. They will then apply to follow you, which you must validate before they can view your pictures or stories.
To make your account private, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Instagram configuration menu. It’s concealed behind the hamburger menu in the top-right corner of your profile page. This will open a side menu with many options; from the cog at the right, you can reach your settings.
Navigate to “Privacy” > “Account Privacy” and toggle the “Private Account” setting on.
One critical caveat: someone who was following you prior to changing your account to private would continue to track you. That implies that if there is someone to whom you wish to refuse entry, you must delete them from your list of followers.
To unfollow someone:
- Navigate to your profile and tap on the number of followers.
- When you scroll down the chart, press the large “Remove” button next to the name of someone you want to delete.
GUARANTEE THE Security OF YOUR STORIES
Instagram allows you to control who sees your stories (a 24-hour loop of images) and prevent users from posting them more.
To conceal your tale from real individuals:
- Navigate to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Tale.”
- Select “Hide Story From.” It’ll bring up a list of all of your fans. To disable entry, tap the circle beside their profile.
Additionally, you may discourage anyone from telling your story:
Return to the previous tab (“Settings” > “Privacy” > “Story”). Continue scrolling down to the bottom, where you’ll see a segment called “Sharing.”
You’ll see an alternative labeled “Allow Sharing.” By disabling this function, users would be unable to share their stories with others.
Additionally, you can disable “Allow Resharing to Stories” to prohibit anyone from using your posts in their stories.
Allow “Share Your Story on Facebook” to prevent your stories from being posted on Facebook. This indicates they can limit their posting to Instagram.
Finally, you may use Instagram’s Close Friends functionality to target particular users with your stories.
To determine who is included in that category of individuals, navigate to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Tale.”
Select Close Friends from the drop-down menu and begin adding people. Individuals would not be told whether they are introduced to (or deleted from) this category.
PREVENT OTHERS FROM SEEING YOUR FEED
When it comes to preserving the images and videos you share on your feed, the situation is far more binary than it is for posts.
If you’re not interested in going private, you can still block specific users:
- To begin blocking anyone, you must first navigate to their account. Tap the three-dotted menu in the upper-right corner of their profile tab.
- Select “Block”
REMOVE PERSONALIZED ADVERTISEMENTS
Instagram advertisements are personalized depending on the places you frequent and the applications you use. To bring an end to this, the situation becomes a little more complicated. You must first navigate to Facebook, which manages Instagram.
To switch off ad personalization, navigate to Facebook’s ad settings.
On smartphone, press the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the Facebook window, then choose “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings”> “Ad Preferences” > “Ad Settings.”
Simply click here to access the “Your Ad Preferences” tab on the site, and then on “Ad settings” to show your choices.
Switch off the top two options: “Advertising focused on data from partners” and “Ads based on your presence on Facebook Company Products that appear elsewhere.” This would prevent Facebook from targeting you with advertisements based on details it obtains from sources other than Instagram.