How To Delete An Instagram Account?

Instagram logo

With all the controversy surrounding Facebook’s privacy breach last week, we here at VPN.com figured it was only prudent to make sure that all our readers have the most up to date information on how they can better control their own data imprint with the company across all its owned services.

Though Instagram does operate as its own entity, the photo-sharing social media service is still wholly owned by Facebook, which means that ultimately any data that you share with Instagram does end up somewhere on Facebook’s radar when they really need it.

With this in mind, here are a few tips on how to better control your privacy on Instagram, as well as how to either temporarily deactivate or delete Instagram account entirely if you’re worried about any data the company collects falling into the wrong hands. How to delete Instagram account? The answer of this question will be below in this article.

What Data Does Instagram Collect?

The text in the image says, what data does Instagram collects and how to delete Instagram account. The background of the image shows an iPhone displaying Instagram logo

Compared to Facebook, the amount of data that Instagram collects on its users is relatively minimal, but still could be enough to scare off more privacy-conscious users. How to delete Instagram account?

According to the company’s privacy policy, the main chunks of data Instagram gathers falls into the following categories:

  • Directly Provided Information: This data includes anything that you’ve intentionally handed over to Instagram, including surface details like your email address, phone number, real name, or profile picture.
  • Find Your Friends: If you utilized the Find Your Friends service when you first signed up, this means Instagram was able to access the contact list stored in the phone you were using at the time to get you linked up with other friends who had already signed up for the service.
  • Analytics Information: This includes any websites you might visit on the device you use Instagram with, add-ons, and “other information”. The company says that this information is randomized with other users’ data so it can’t ever be traced back to an individual account.
  • Cookies: Instagram stores cookies on your local device in order to serve ads to its customers. Want to delete instagram account? Read the whole article.
  • Log File Information: According to the privacy policy, any data included in this section includes: “…your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Service, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.”
  • Device Identifiers: These are small bits of data that simply tell Instagram what device you’re using when you use the service, as well as which devices you use most often and for how long.

Metadata: Last up is metadata, which is defined as anything that is added to the user’s own content including a hashtag (e.g., to mark keywords when you post a photo), geotag (e.g., to mark your location to a photo), comments or other data.

How Does Instagram Use Your Data?

The text in the image says, how does Instagram use your data and the background of the image shows delete Instagram logo and Insta buttons

So once Instagram gets done collecting all that data from you, what exactly do they do with it? Well, according to the company’s privacy policy they use it in much the same way as dozens of other companies in the “user as a product” space do: to sell you stuff.

Here’s the full list of how Instagram manages your data, according to the company itself:

 

  • Help you efficiently access your information after you sign in
  • Remember information so you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Service;
  • Provide personalized content and information to you and others, which could include online ads or other forms of marketing
  • Provide, improve, test, and monitor the effectiveness of our Service
  • Develop and test new products and features
  • Monitor metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns
  • Diagnose or fix technology problems
  • Automatically update the Instagram application on your device
  • Instagram or other Users may run contests, special offers, or other events or activities (“Events”) on the Service. If you do not want to participate in an Event, do not use the particular Metadata (i.e. hashtag or geotag) associated with that Event. How to delete Instagram account?

Tips For Controlling Your Privacy On Instagram

Even though Instagram is owned by Facebook, the company’s privacy control options are significantly slimmer by comparison. Also check out how to deactivate or delete Facebook account easily on your mobile phone only on vpn.com.

Still, there are a number of techniques the average user can put into practice to better protect themselves and their identity while they’re scrolling through their feed. How to delete Instagram account? The question arises so many times, that how we can deactivate or delete Instagram account.

Make Your Account Private

The first method of protecting your privacy on Instagram is to set your account to Private. This is a common tactic that millions of users on the service employ to guarantee that only people that they’ve personally approved are able to see their photos or posts. How to delete Instagram account? The complete answer will be given below in this article, that how you can deactivate or delete Instagram account.

To stop your profile from being publicly accessible to anyone except your followers, start by clicking the Edit My Profile button located in the top-right corner of your profile page:

 

Delete Instagram Edit Profile

Next, scroll down and look for the box labeled Private Account. Tick this off to take your profile off the publicly searchable results and prevent anyone except your followers from being able to see all past or future content posted to your page. Want to delete instagram account? Read the whole article.

 

Delete Instagram Private Account

Disable Similar Account Suggestions

Another way to keep your profile on the downlow is to remove it from the Similar Account Suggestions roster. This is the feature that lets other users discover new accounts that are related to other users they follow.

To disable this feature simply look right under the same box we had you tick off in the last section, and do the same here:

 

Delete Instagram Similar Account

Disable Authorized Apps

Lastly, we recommend disabling any apps that are authorized on your Instagram account, as these can access your data in ways that standard advertisers and third-party applications can’t. How to delete Instagram account?

To do this, go back to the Edit My Profile page and look for the tab on the left-hand side labeled Authorized Apps. Click this and look for any apps that appear on the page:

 

Delete Instagram Authorized Apps

How To Temporarily Delete Your Instagram Account?

If you’re tired of giving up your personal privacy in exchange for a few friends of your photos, but aren’t quite ready to completely erase yourself from the most popular photo sharing service on the planet, then temporarily disabling your Instagram account is a decent half-measure to take. Want to delete instagram account? Read the whole article.

To temporarily disable your Instagram account, start by going to the Edit My Profile page, and in the Edit Profile tab you should see a small link in the bottom-right corner labeled Temporarily disable my account:

 

Delete Instagram Temporarily Disable

How To Permanently Delete Instagram Account?

Finally, if you’re ready to take the plunge into the world of total digital privacy, then deleting your Instagram account is the only way to go.

To do this, start by following this link on a desktop or laptop, and make sure you do so in a browser where your Instagram account is already logged in.

From there, much like disabling your account, you’ll be asked to enter a reason why you’re deleting your account and will need to enter your password one more time. After that’s entered correctly the red button labeled Permanently delete Instagram account will light up, and you only need to click this once to complete the process. Want to delete instagram account?

 

Delete Instagram Permanent

WARNING: Permanently deleting your Instagram account will render all your account data irreversibly unrecoverable, so make sure you’re totally sure you want to get rid of your profile and all your photos before you take this route. Instagram states that once an account has been deleted there is no option to get those photos back, so at the very least if there are any treasured memories stored on their servers we recommend saving them to a local hard drive before you wipe the account.

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