How To Secure Your Instagram Account [Updated] ?

Now Instagram is a Interesting way to explore your creative and innovative webside while taking photos and sharing them with your friends. It’s a great platform to share your materials with unknown people who choose to follow you.

We take our social media knowledge for granted ,we usually have no fears on our security or privacy.But We have a misguided sense of protection on the social networks,that we are in a safe place,only surrounded by friends,and nothing bad can happen to us. However, if you don’t want to expose yourself,here i will describe below all the options you have to secure your Instagram account.

Steps To How To Secure Your Instagram Account

Step 1 : Always Keep your profile photos private.

If you dont want your photos to be public and available to be seen by everyone,then you can make your profile private.

Only share your photos with the users you choose,like your friends and family, follow these steps:

• 1. Just Go to your Instagram profile window.
• 2. After that Click on the three dots in the right corner.
• 3. At the bottom you will see the Private Account option. Make sure this security setting is ON.

Activating this option means that only those who follow you can see your online photos.

Step 2 : Block followers you don’t know

You have created an Instagram account and you want followers. So, you start following even unknown people that you discover. In return, some of them follow you back. However, after a while, you may start to receive inappropriate comments on your photos from those users. Or, on the contrary, they may not interact with your posts in any ways and you feel that they are only lurking.

Even if you have turned on the option to make your photos private, it won’t keep your posts private from those who are already following you.

In this case, you will have to manually remove (Block) the people you dont want to see your photos.

To remove one of your followers from your list, follow these steps:

• 1. Just Go to your Followers list and check the people who follow you.
• 2. Tap on the user that you want to block.
• 3. From the top-right corner, tap on the menu button.
• 4. In the new window, choose the Block User option.

Step 3 : Keep your Profile Information Private.

Dont expose too much private data in your profile information and especially in your EDIT PROFILE area.

Dont write any personal information that could be used against you in the Bio field.

Step 4 : Dont expose your location.

Its a another important step you can take to keep yourself secure from identity theft and hide your accounts credentials from online criminals, is to make sure your location services for Instagram is turned off.

This is also extremely important for the check-ins made at home, at work or while on a vacation. There have been plenty of cases of thiefs that were tipped off because of check-ins made on social media. People left for a short holiday, bragged about it online, and came home to find the place emptied.

So, the first step to avoid becoming a victim is, of course, to avoid checking-in certain photos.

If it’s too late to do that, you should check and remove the location you added to your past photos.

To do this, follow these simple steps:

• 1. Just Go to your Instagram profile account.
• 2. Tap on the dropped pin icon.
• 3. At the top right of the screen you’ll see three dots, tap on them and then click on “Edit”.
• 4. Youll see a photo map of your photos that have geotags. From there on, you just have to select the photos that you want to remove from your geo-map. Tap on them, and then tap on the check mark at the top right of the screen.
• 5. It will ask you to Confirm that you want to remove the geotags and permanently remove their location data from Instagram – click Confirm and that will be it.

Step 5 : Manually approve Photo Tags

Lets just imagine a situation where someone posts an embarrassing photo with you on Instagram, a photo your friends or family members should not see.

For an individual who cares about reputation and social status, this could be quite a difficult moment.

So, what can we do to keep ourselves protected from this type of surprises?

The answer in this case is to activate the Instagram option that allows you to manually add photos you’ve been tagged in to your profile.

To do this, follow these steps:

• 1. Go to your Instagram profile account.
• 2. Access the Photos of You area.
• 3. Tap the menu button in the top-right corner.
• 4. Choose the option to add photos manually to your profile.

Step 6 : Activate Two-Factor Authentication

This is an option recently introduced by Facebook, they activated in February 2016, but it’s most welcome.

Two-Factor Authentication works as an extra shield of protection for your account. In case a cyber criminal somehow finds out your password, they won’t be able to take over your account, as they will need this second factor to authenticate themselves.

The second factor consists of a unique, time-sensitive code, that youll receive via text on your mobile phone. You’ll have to introduce it any time you’ll want to log-in to your Instagram account from a new device.

Of course, it’s also essential that you set a strong, unique password to your account, so don’t ignore that aspect either.

Here’s how to turn on the Two-Factor Authentication:

• 1. In the mobile app, go on your Instagram profile.
• 2. Click on the Settings icon (top right of the screen).
• 3. In the menu you’ll see a shortlink for “Two-Factor Authentication”, click on it.
• 4. Turn it on and set it up using your mobile phone.

Thats it. From now on, any time youll want to log in to your Instagram account from a new mobile phone, you’ll have to introduce the password and the extra unique code, that you’ll receive via text message.

As an alternative, in case you ever lose your mobile and don’t have access to your phone number, you can also use one of the Backup Codes. Each Instagram account has five unique codes. You’ll find them in the same place where you activate the Two-Factor Authentication.

Step 7 : Revoke access to third party apps

Most likely you logged in using your social account to third party apps. It can be other social networks, or services that analyse your number of followers, post on your behalf and so on.

For security and privacy matters, you should only allow access to the apps that are trustworthy (especially those created directly by the Instagram and Facebook teams). Remember that those apps have access to your profile and personal information, thus making you vulnerable.

So take your time and do a spring cleaning. Check every single app that you allowed to access and use your Instagram account. Revoke access to the ones that you don’t use anymore, look suspicious or you can’t even remember them.

Here’s how to do that:

• 1. Log into your Instagram account from the browser (desktop / laptop).
• 2. On the top right of the screen, click on your profile photo. Select “Edit Profile”.
• 3. InFrom the Menu, select “Manage Applications”. It will take you to a page from where you can manage the apps that you authorized to use your Instagram account. Revoke access to any apps that might make your account vulnerable.

General Guidelines to follow before posting on Instagram

• 1. Dont post sensitive information in your photos or captions
• 2. Dont reveal your location
• 3. Make sure the location is not revealed by background details either.
• 4. Dont use hashtags that may reveal private data (or the location)
• 5. Dont post provocative or violent photos
• 6. Dont post photos of other people without their consent
• 7. Do not engage in online bullying
• 8. Parents, please don’t post photos of your kids online
• 9. If you log into your Instagram account from other devices (public / shared), make sure you log out every time

Note :-I found this useful, easy-to-follow guide on how to secure my Instagram account:

I hope you enjoyed this article.