One of the most important aspects of using any social media app is keeping our privacy safe. Fortunately, most online platforms give us options from where we can choose who sees or comments on our stuff. Of course, Instagram is one of the many apps that allows us to do just that.
But, how well protected are we? Well, there are quite a few things Instagram users can do to keep their privacy safe. For example, you can set your profile to private, you can get notified when someone takes a screenshot of your photos, you can select the “close friends” feature to choose who sees your Stories, and much more.
In short, Instagram offers more than one option to keep our privacy safe. And today, we will give you three privacy tips you can use to be totally secured when surfing on the photo-sharing platform.
Instagram Privacy Tips
Before we start, know that Instagram has more than just three ways to keep your account safe. The privacy methods you are about to read about are just some of the basic ones.
1. Set Your Profile To Private
Having a public Instagram profile allows people from all over the world to follow you. Therefore, if you want only friends and family to see what you post on Instagram, you will need to set your profile to private. But, how can I do that?
Well, it’s pretty easy actually. First of all, you will need to open up Instagram on your phone and go to the profile icon. Then tap the three lines icon on the top right of the screen and select settings.
After that, all you need to do is scroll down and tap where it says “Private Account.” Finally, just confirm you want to set your account to private.
Activating the private account option will give you the power to choose you can follow you. In other words, people will need your approval so they can see your posts.
2. Remove A Follower
There are times when we no longer want certain people to see our stuff. For example, let’s imagine you broke up with a girlfriend or boyfriend and now you want to remove them from your list of followers on Instagram.
Well, doing that is pretty simple. Simply open Instagram on your phone. Then, go to your profile and tap where it says followers. Finally, tap the three dots next to the name of the person you want to remove, and confirm you don’t want them in your list of followers.
This will help you to remove spam, bots, fake followers, and even people you don’t want to see your stuff. But, that’s not all. Instagram won’t notify users that they have been removed. However, there’s a catch.
In order for this to work, you need to have your profile set to private. Otherwise, the three dots will not appear next to the person you want to remove.
3. Stop Direct Messages On Stories
Instagram allows people to send messages to anyone they want. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t matter if they follow you or not. Fortunately, there is a way to put an end to this.
Unfortunately, there’s a limitation. We can only restrict direct messages for Stories. In other words, there’s still not an option allowing us to stop DMs from people who don’t follow us.
So, if they want, they can still send us a message. Nevertheless, these messages are kept into a different folder (Requests) to our other messages.
Now, in order to restrict messages in Stories, you need to enter your settings. Once in there, go under the section “Privacy and Security” and select Story Controls.
Finally, go where it says “Allow Message Replies,” and tap “Off.” This will stop people from being able to reply messages whenever you post a Story.
Note
These are only a few basic privacy tips you can use to keep your Instagram account safe. Still, there are some more advanced features that you can also learn about by reading our blog.
For now, we invite you to read these other tips for social media privacy and hope that you can let us know your thoughts.
