Seven essential tips to protect your privacy on Instagram

Enhance Your Instagram Privacy: 7 Essential Steps

In today’s digital age, safeguarding personal information on social media is more crucial than ever. With Instagram’s immense popularity for sharing personal moments, it can sometimes expose users to privacy risks. To help users maintain control over their online presence, here are seven essential steps to enhance your Instagram account’s privacy settings:

1. Switch to a Private Account
   By making your profile private, you ensure that only approved followers can see your content. This can be easily done under the ‘Account privacy’ section in your settings.
2. Unlink from Facebook
   If you’re concerned about cross-platform sharing, consider disconnecting your Facebook account. This can be done in the ‘Accounts Centre’ in settings, preventing unintentional sharing of content between the two platforms.
3. Create a Close Friends List
   For more selective sharing, use Instagram’s ‘Close Friends’ feature to limit posts and stories to specific contacts. You can manage this list directly from your settings.
4. Hide Stories and Live Content from Certain Individuals
   Instagram allows you to restrict specific individuals from viewing your stories and live broadcasts. Go to ‘Who can see your content’ and select ‘Hide story and live’ to customize your audience.
5. Disable Activity Status
   Turn off the ‘Last Seen’ feature to prevent others from knowing when you were last active on the app. This setting is found under ‘Messages and story replies.’
6. Turn Off Read Receipts
   Similar to WhatsApp’s blue ticks, Instagram lets others know when you’ve read their messages. To disable this, navigate to ‘Messages and story replies’ and toggle off ‘Show read receipts.’
7. Limit Interactions from Specific Users
   If you want to minimize unwanted interactions, use the ‘Limit interactions’ setting. This restricts comments, mentions, and story replies from certain accounts, while still allowing close friends to engage with you.

As concerns around privacy continue to grow, implementing these steps will empower you to control your online presence and enjoy a safer experience on Instagram.