How to stop Instagram from harvesting so much of your data

If you use Instagram, the app is collecting data about you. It tracks every post you view, every account you follow and every ad you click on. It can track your location and other preferences. Instagram shares this information with third parties for targeted advertising which might be helpful, but many find annoying and invasive. It also uses your data to curate your feed, which is designed to be as addictive as possible. 

You can update your settings to help protect your information, data and even brain space. You’ll need to do this both within Instagram itself, and in your phone’s general settings.

Stop Instagram from collecting your location data

If you want to protect your location from Instagram, you have to adjust the settings in your phone. Here we walk through how to do it on your iPhone.

1. In your Settings, click Privacy & Security. It’s towards the bottom of the list.
   

   Photo by PIRG staff | TPIN

2. Select Location Services.
   

   Photo by PIRG staff | TPIN

3. Select Instagram from the list of apps. (But take advantage of the opportunity to turn it off for as many of the apps as you can while you’re here.)
   

   Photo by PIRG staff | TPIN

4. Set it how you want. We recommend selecting “Never”.
   

   Photo by PIRG staff | TPIN

Stop advertisers from using your Instagram data

To stop advertisers from using your Instagram data to target you with ads, you need to adjust the settings within the Instagram app itself. This one is a bit more involved (thanks Instagram).

1. Inside the app, go to your profile and click the icon of the 3 bars in the top right
   

   Photo by PIRG staff | TPIN

2. Select Accounts Center.
   

   Photo by Maya Zhan | TPIN

3. Go to Ad Preferences.
   

   Photo by Maya Zhan | TPIN

4. Select Manage info and then select Activity Information From Ad Partners.
   

   Photo by Maya Zhan | TPIN

5. This will lead out of the app to a web browser. Here you want to click the blue Review Setting button.
   

   Photo by Maya Zhan | TPIN

6. Finally, click “No, don’t make my ads more relevant by using this information” then click Confirm.
   

   Photo by Maya Zhan | TPIN

Congrats! You’ve now officially taken more control of your Instagram data.

If you want to request a copy of the data Instagram has already collected on you, we have a guide for getting ahold of your data.

Learn more