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How can i hide my instagram account


How to Hide Instagram Account and Prevent Other Users from Finding You

By default the images you share on your Instagram profile can be viewed by virtually anyone that signed up with an account on the app. If you’d rather stay under the radar instead, there are a few things you can do to hide your Instagram account and prevent your contacts and other people from finding you on the social network.

For example, by removing specific information, even if someone has your phone number, they won’t be able to find you on Instagram. Follow along with this guide, as we detail additional options that will help you stay hidden from prying eyes.

Content
  • Remove Your Facebook Account From Instagram
  • Make Your Account Private
  • Remove Your Phone Number from Instagram
  • Turn Contact Syncing Off
  • Prevent Your Friends From Finding You in Similar Accounts
  • Turn Your Online Status Off
  • Temporary Deactivate Your Account
  • Frequently Asked Questions

Remove Your Facebook Account From Instagram

To make sharing easier, Instagram allows you to link your Facebook account to the app (and vice versa. ) If you want to prevent people from finding you on Instagram, we advise against it.

Linking the two accounts means both apps will have access to the others’ friend list. So whenever a Facebook friend of yours creates an account on Instagram, your profile will show up as a friend suggestion. Since this is something we want to avoid, go ahead and remove your Facebook connection from Instagram.

  1. Open the Instagram app on your Android device.
  2. Tap on your circular profile icon on the bottom right.
  1. Go to the hamburger menu located in the upper-right corner of your profile and select “Settings” from the menu that pops up.
  1. Scroll down and tap on “Accounts Center” at the bottom.
  1. Tap on “Accounts” under the “Account settings” section.
  1. Press on the “Remove” button next to your Facebook account name.
  1. Instagram will ask you to confirm whether you want to “disable connected experiences for your account. ” Tap on the blue “Continue” button.
  1. Confirm your choice by pressing the “Remove” button on the next screen.
  1. You can also do this from Instagram on PC. On your feed page, click on your profile icon in the upper-right corner of the display.
  2. Select “Settings.”
  1. On the left side, scroll down and click on the “Accounts Center” option.
  1. Select “Accounts” on the left and then click on your Facebook account.
  2. Press the “Remove” button next to your Facebook account.

Once you unlink your Facebook account, you will no longer risk appearing as a friend suggestion for any of your Facebook friends joining Instagram.

Make Your Account Private

Setting your account to private is one of the easiest ways to make your profile less visible. Even if someone does eventually find you, they won’t be able to see your posts unless you give them express permission to do so.

  1. You can activate the privacy mode on mobile by heading to “Settings -> Privacy.”
  1. Then toggle on the “Private account” option at the top.
  1. On PC, go to “Settings -> Privacy and Security” and tick the “Private Account” option.

Remove Your Phone Number from Instagram

Before you go ahead with removing your phone number from Instagram, keep in mind that you won’t be able to have the two-factor authentication feature enabled. You also need to have a verified email address for this to work, since Instagram does require at least one verified way to contact you in case of emergency.

You can disable two-factor-authentication by going to “Settings -> Security -> Two-Factor Authentication” and turning it off from there.

  1. To remove your phone number, tap on the profile icon and select “Edit profile.”
  1. Swipe down to “Personal information settings.”
  1. Delete your phone number from the dedicated field.
  1. On PC, click the “Edit profile” button next to your Instagram profile name.
  1. Scroll down and make sure the “Phone number” section stays empty.

Once your phone number is removed, people who have saved your digits to their mobile won’t be able to find you once they activate “Connect Contacts.”

Speaking of which, you’ve probably used the option yourself back when you were setting up your Instagram account for the first time. Still, if you wish to stay hidden, you should relinquish this functionality. You’ll need to use your mobile device for this.

  1. Go to “Settings -> Account” on your device.
  1. Hit the “Contacts syncing” option.
  1. Disable “Connect contacts” from there.

Prevent Your Friends From Finding You in Similar Accounts

The person you’re trying to hide from can easily find you if they happen to follow an account similar to yours. To prevent this from happening, go to Instagram on your desktop browser. Strangely enough, you won’t be able to turn off this option from your phone or tablet.

  1. Go to your Instagram profile on your PC and hit the “Edit Profile” button, just like we showed you above. Scroll to the bottom, where you’ll see a box you can uncheck that will prevent your account from appearing in any similar account results.
  1. Click on the blue “Submit” button.

From here, it’s also possible to add or remove your phone number, in case you didn’t follow the steps described above.

If you want even more privacy, turning your online status off is a step in the right direction. To hide your online status from others on Instagram for mobile:

  1. Go to “Settings -> Privacy.”
  1. Tap on “Activity Status.”
  1. Toggle off the “Show Activity Status” button. If the button is blue, that means it’s on, and if it’s gray, it’s off.
  1. Alternatively, you can do the same from PC. Just go to “Settings -> Privacy & security” and uncheck the box next to “Show Activity Status” on the right.

Block Certain Accounts

Want to make absolutely sure someone can’t find you no matter what? Block their account if you know their username.

  1. On mobile, simply navigate to their profile and tap on the three-dot menu in the corner of the display.
  1. A pop-up menu will show up from the bottom of the display. Select “Block” from there.
  2. On your PC, find the three-dots next to their Instagram user name and select “Block” from the pop-up window.

Temporary Deactivate Your Account

The only way to be 100% sure someone will never find you is if you erase your account. But since that’s a bit drastic, you can opt instead to temporary disable your account and get some peace of mind.

This means your photos, likes, and comments will be hidden until you decide to log back into the app.

Note: You can only deactivate your account once a week.

To deactivate your account you must use Instagram on a PC or log into your account into a mobile browser.

  1. Go to your profile and press the “Edit profile” button.
  2. Click on the “Temporary deactivate my account” option at the bottom.
  1. Select a reason why you’re deactivating your profile and type your password once again.
  1. Click “Temporary Deactivate Your Account” and then “Yes” to confirm your choice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I control who messages me on Instagram?

If you wish to control who you interact with on Instagram via Direct Messages you can. Go to “Settings -> Privacy -> Messages” and set up “Message Requests” for people who follow you and those who don’t. This means Direct messages won’t automatically go to your Instagram Inbox, but will be lodged in a “Request” tab from where you can quickly delete them. Also make sure you tweak the settings for who can add you in “Group chats” and to “Groups” if you don’t want to socialize more than you have to.

How do I remove an Instagram follower?

Go to your profile and tap on “Followers” next to your profile picture. The list of accounts that follow you will become visible. Tap on the “Remove” button next to the account you want to get rid of to delete them from your list. Instagram won’t notify that particular account that you’ve removed it.

If I block an account, can the person behind it still contact/follow me via another account?

Unfortunately, yes. This is why we recommend making your account private, so you can screen any account that wants to follow you and identify any potential shady accounts you don’t want to have in your list.

Image credit: Ibadah Mimpi via Pexels. All screenshots by Alexandra Arici.

Alexandra Arici

Alexandra is passionate about mobile tech and can be often found fiddling with a smartphone from some obscure company. She kick-started her career in tech journalism in 2013, after working a few years as a middle-school teacher. Constantly driven by curiosity, Alexandra likes to know how things work and to share that knowledge with everyone.

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How to protect your privacy on Instagram

  • Tech/
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Keep your stories and feed posts locked down

By Jacob Kastrenakes / @jake_k

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Part of /

The Verge Guide to Instagram

My Instagram profile probably reveals more personal details about me than any other social network page. As a result, I started to get creeped out after I realized just how many people were following me I didn’t actually know.

Locking down your privacy on Instagram can be as simple as setting your profile to “private.” But you can get a lot more granular than that, and there is a range of other protections you can put in place. You can keep your account public but make it a little more protected, or even add stricter protections than simply flipping the private profile switch gives you.

If you really want to keep your account safe, here’s what you can do.

Set your account to private

Setting your account to private is the simplest thing you can do to lock down your profile. It means that, going forward, no one can see your photos or stories unless you approve them.

Once your account is private, new people who visit your profile will only see your name and profile image. From there, they can request to follow you, and you have to confirm their request before they can see your photos or stories.

To set your account to private:

  • Go to Instagram’s settings menu. It’s hidden away on your profile page behind the hamburger button in the top-right corner. That will open a side menu with several choices; you can access your settings from the cog that appears at the very bottom.
  • From there, go to “Privacy” > “Account Privacy” and activate the “Private Account” setting.

One important caveat: anyone who already follows you at the time you change your account to private will still be following you. That means if there’s anyone you want to deny access to, you have to remove them from your followers list.

To remove someone who’s following you: 

  • Go to your profile, and tap on your follower count
  • Scroll through your list, and tap the big “Remove” button beside the name of anyone you want to get rid of

Protect your stories

Instagram lets you limit who sees your stories (the reel of images that disappear after 24 hours) and stop people from sharing them even further.

To hide your story from specific people:

  • Go to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Story” 
  • Choose “Hide Story From.” It’ll open a list of your followers. Tap the circle beside their name to cut off access.

You can also prevent people from sharing your story:

  • Go to that same page (“Settings” > “Privacy” > “Story”). Scroll down to the bottom where there’s a section labeled “Sharing.”
  • You’ll see an option that says “Allow Sharing.” Turning this off will prevent people from messaging your stories to others.
  • You can also turn off “Allow Resharing to Stories” to prevent people from adding your posts to their stories.
  • To stop your stories from being shared to Facebook, disable “Share Your Story to Facebook.” This means they’ll only post to Instagram.

Finally, you can use Instagram’s Close Friends feature to limit the reach of your stories to specific people. 

  • To set who’s in that group of people, go to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Story” 
  • Tap under Close Friends and start adding people. People won’t be notified when they’re added (or removed) from this group.

Block people from seeing your feed

When it comes to protecting the photos and videos posted to your feed, it’s much more of an all-or-nothing scenario than it is with stories.

If you don’t want to go private, you can still block individual users:

  • To block someone, you first have to go to their account. On their profile page, tap the three-dotted menu in the upper-right corner. 
  • Click on “Block” 

Note: you can also restrict people from this menu. If you restrict them, they can still see your content, but their comments will only appear to you, and they won’t be able to see when you’re online. 

Make yourself less visible

There are a few things you can do to make yourself a little bit harder to find (and give out less information about yourself in the process).

First, you can stop sending your contacts to Instagram. You might have given Instagram access to your contacts initially to help find your friends when signing up, but it means that Instagram knows who’s in your phone book. To turn it off:

  • Go to “Settings” > “Account” > “Contacts Syncing” 
  • Disable “Connect Contacts”

You can also stop Instagram from suggesting your account to others. This happens when someone follows a new account: Instagram will then display accounts it believes are “similar,” which you could be grouped into. You can’t change this using your mobile app. To turn this off:

  • Sign into Instagram’s website, and go to your profile 
  • Select the “Edit Profile” button
  • Uncheck the very last option, “Similar Account Suggestions”

Finally, it’s worth checking to see whether any of your Instagram posts come up in a Google search. By default, Instagram doesn’t let Google find your photos, but if you ever signed into a third-party web viewer (and you might have in the years before Instagram was available on the web), it’s possible that site is scraping your profile and posting it for all to see.

If one or more of your posts does come up in your search, the first step to getting rid of it is to cut off third-party apps’ access to your Instagram account. You can do that on the mobile app:

  • Go to “Settings” > “Security” > “Apps and Websites” > “Active” 
  • Remove any apps you aren’t using anymore

Protect what people see about you

You can drill down even further in limiting what in your account is visible to other people.

One big thing you can do is turn off your activity status so people can’t see when you’re online. (Be aware that, if you disable this, you won’t be able to see when other people are online either.) 

  • Go to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Activity Status”
  • Disable “Show Activity Status”

You might also want to review tagged photos before they’re posted to your profile. If you have a public account, reviewing every tag can stop spammers from filling up your profile. And if you have a private account, this can stop your friends from sticking an unflattering picture on your profile. To do this:

  • Go to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Tags”
  • Enable “Manually Approve Tags”

Stop saving your posts and stories

You may not actually want to save the photos and videos you post to Instagram, especially your disappearing stories. There are a couple of things you can do to stop that.

To stop your stories from being saved:

  • Go to “Settings” > “Privacy” > “Story” 
  • Turn off two settings. The first is “Save to Camera Roll” (on iOS) or “Save to Gallery” (on Android), which saves your stories to your phone. The second is “Save to Archive,” and turning that off stops Instagram from hanging onto your stories for you to view later after they’ve disappeared.

If you also want to keep your feed posts inside of Instagram:

  • Go to “Settings” > “Account” > “Original Posts” 
  • Disable all three options (Save Original Posts, Save Posted Photos, and Save Posted Videos) 

This will prevent the posts from being stored locally on your phone, but it also means that your only copy will be on Instagram.

Get rid of personalized ads

Instagram ads are based on websites you visit and apps you use. If you want to put a stop to this, it’s a little bit trickier. You actually have to hop over to Facebook, which owns Instagram.

To disable ad personalization, you first need to go to Facebook’s ad settings. 

  • On mobile, in the Facebook app, tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner, then choose “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings”> “Ad Preferences” > “Ad Settings” 
  • On the web, just click here to go to the “Your Ad Preferences” page, and then click on “Ad settings” to reveal your options.
  • You’ll want to turn off the top two options: “Ads based on data from partners” and “Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products that you see elsewhere.” This will stop Facebook from targeting you based on information it obtains outside of Instagram.

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.

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How to close an Instagram account 2021

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Someone actively promotes their profile, and someone wants to close their Instagram account from prying eyes. You can do this in a couple of clicks, you just need to find the desired item in the settings.

Now Instagram has updated the “Settings” section. We are posting screenshots of how to close your Instagram account after the 2022 update.

How to close your Instagram account in 2022 after the

update Below you will find instructions on how to close your Instagram profile so that posts and stories are only visible to followers. Even on anonymous browsing sites, your Stories will not be viewable.
If you want to temporarily hide your account from everyone, you can block it. And if only from a specific person, then block his profile.

  1. Log in to your account, go to Settings (this is how they look after the 2022 update).

  2. On some phones in 2022, the settings menu looks like this:
  3. Scroll down and find the "Privacy" item, after - "Closed account" drag the slider to the right.
  4. Make account private? Click Make Private

How to add or remove followers on a private Instagram profile

When someone wants to follow you, you will need to go to notifications and confirm or decline the subscription.


In order for one of the already approved subscribers to no longer see your posts, he must be removed from the subscribers. Open the list of your subscribers, find the right one. Click the three dots on the right, select "Delete". Your subscriber will not know about this until he goes to your profile (he will no longer be able to see the posts and will understand that he was removed from the subscribers).

How to open a closed account on Instagram

To make the account open again, repeat all the same steps (screenshots above). Open the settings, find "Privacy and security", after - "Account privacy". "Closed Account" Drag the slider to the left. "Make the account public?" Click OK.

How to make a private business account on Instagram?

.

None. If you have an account with connected statistics (business account), then you can make it closed only by transferring it back to your personal account. Business accounts were invented to make promotion on Instagram more efficient. Accordingly, such an account should be open in order to attract a maximum of subscribers. Still want to close your profile? Switch to a personal account without statistics and then close it according to the instructions above.

How to switch back to a personal account is in the article: How to make a business account on Instagram.

What is the difference between a closed Instagram account and an open one?

In 2020, after the update, only the interface has changed, while all the advantages and disadvantages of a closed account have remained the same.

  1. All photos and videos in a closed account can only be seen by subscribers.
  2. Your posts will not appear in hashtag searches.
  3. Your Instagram profile can be found in the general search by account name, but posts will not be visible when you go to it.
  4. If you want to subscribe to a private account, you must first submit an application and wait for the owner of the private profile to approve it. To do this, he needs to go to his notifications and click on "Subscription requests".
  5. A private profile can only be personal, without statistics. A business account cannot be closed (only transfer it back to a personal one and then close it - see above).

Should I close my Instagram account?

Sometimes bloggers close their Instagram account on purpose. Reasons:

  • Mass complaint protection. Often accounts are blocked precisely because of them. But the best way is to temporarily block your account if someone purposefully wants to sink your account.
  • Advertising from other bloggers. Interested in advertising, and to see the account - subscribe.

If you are just starting to maintain an account, it is better not to close it.

Instagram: privacy and security settings

Social network accounts, especially popular ones, are a tasty morsel for attackers. And it is easiest to hack what is poorly protected. Therefore, we regularly remind you that it is worth taking care of the security of your accounts, as far as social networks allow it.

  • Set up privacy and security for your Instagram account
    • The most important security settings on Instagram
      • How to change your Instagram password
      • How to set up two-factor authentication on Instagram
      • How to check in the app if you received a real email from Instagram
      • Where to find the list of apps connected to Instagram
    • The most important privacy settings on Instagram
      • How to close your Instagram account and edit your followers list
      • How to control who sees your Instagram stories
      • How to get rid of spam comments on Instagram
      • How to get rid of spam in direct and adding to the left groups on Instagram
      • How to hide your online status on Instagram
      • How to block or restrict a user from your Instagram
      • How to remove unnecessary push notifications in the Instagram app
  • Do not forget to set up security in other social networks

Unfortunately, security and privacy settings are often not so easy to understand. Moreover, developers change them from time to time. For example, Instagram settings have recently been updated. We tell you what is useful in them and where to look for this useful.

Setting up your Instagram account security

New Instagram settings give you even more protection against unauthorized account logins and identity theft.

To find your security settings:

  • Open your profile.
  • Click on the three bars in the upper right corner of the screen.
  • Select Settings .
  • Go to section Security .

Where to find the security settings in the Instagram app

The password is the head of everything

The first rule of security for any account is to set a good, long, unique password. Attackers will not be able to quickly pick it up and will not find it in the databases that they managed to steal from other sites, which means they will not be able to hack into your account. At least, if you do not give out your password yourself or it does not leak from the social network itself.

How to set up two-factor authentication on Instagram

To be on the safe side in case your password is leaked, turn on two-factor authentication. Every time someone tries to log in on a new device on your behalf, the social network will request a one-time code from SMS or from a special application. Thus, you will always be aware of login attempts, and it will be impossible to hack your account without knowing the code.

To enable two-factor authentication:

  • Select Two-factor authentication .
  • Press Start .
  • Choose how you want to receive codes: via SMS or two-factor authentication app .

How to set up two-factor authentication in the Instagram app

An added bonus is that after enabling this feature, the social network will give you backup codes . They will help you log into your profile if you don’t have a phone at hand that should receive SMS or on which an application for generating one-time codes is installed (yes, you can do this too - see this post for more details). Write down the backup codes and keep in a safe place.

How to check if you received a real email from Instagram

Instagram developers have figured out how to protect their users from phishing via email. Now in the application settings you can see what letters the social network has sent you over the past two weeks. If you received a letter supposedly from Instagram, but it is not in the application, you can safely send it to spam.

To see which social media notifications are real:

  • Select Emails from Instagram .
  • Look for the email you're interested in under the Security tab if it's about login attempts, suspicious activity from your account, and so on. If it's about something else, check if it's on the tab Other .

How to check if you received a real email from Instagram in the application

Where to find the list of applications connected to Instagram

Another source of danger is third-party sites and applications. They are connected to expand the capabilities of the social network, for example, add photo filters or convenient marketing tools. However, if such an application is hacked or its authors are dishonest, your account can be used for criminal purposes. You can view the list of connected applications and sites and delete everything unnecessary in the same section Security , in block Apps and websites .

Where can I find the list of apps connected to Instagram

Setting up privacy on Instagram?

Instagram allows you not only to keep your profile safe, but also to restrict access to your photos, videos, stories and other data. You can hide personal content from prying eyes, save yourself and friends from offensive comments, and prevent subscribers from sharing your stories and posts with others. For this:

  • Open your profile.
  • Click on the three bars in the upper right corner of the screen.
  • Select Settings .
  • Go to section Privacy .

Where to find the privacy settings in the Instagram app

How to close your Instagram account

If Instagram is not a promotion site for you, but a place to share pictures and videos with friends, you can make your account private:

  • Open Account Privacy .
  • Enable Closed account .

How to close your Instagram account

Now only followers you have approved will see your posts and stories. True, there are some nuances. Firstly, everyone who managed to subscribe to you before is automatically considered approved by the social network. If you do not agree with it, then you need to do this:

  • Section Privacy select Accounts you follow .
  • On the Followers tab, find and remove those you don't want to show your posts and stories to.

How to edit your Instagram followers list

Secondly, if you repost an Instagram photo to another social network, it will be seen by everyone who can see your posts on that social network. So if you do this often, don't forget to set up privacy on other social networks as well.

How to control who sees your Instagram stories

If you are an insta-blogger and it is not convenient for you to close your account, you can control access to specific content. For example, Instagram allows you to hide stories from individual users, publish some of them only to your list of close friends, and limit or even turn off the ability to respond to them. All this is done in section Privacy in block History . There you can also prevent readers from sharing your stories in messages and showing your posts in their stories.

How to control who sees your Instagram stories

To protect yourself and your followers from abuse and spam, you can automatically hide inappropriate comments using Instagram filters or your own. You can configure this in section Privacy , in block Comments . There you can also prevent especially gifted spammers from commenting on your photos and videos.

How to get rid of spam comments on Instagram

How to get rid of direct spam on Instagram

The social network allows you to prevent outsiders from writing you private messages and adding you to groups. If you are annoyed by spam in direct or you think that messages are your private space, open in section Privacy block Messages and select Only people you follow for both items.

How to get rid of spam in direct and adding to the left groups on Instagram

How to hide your online status on Instagram

If you don't want your readers to know when you're online, you can hide your online status from them. To do this, select in section Privacy item Network status and deactivate the switch. True, after that you will also not be able to see information about the activity of other users.

How to hide your online status on Instagram

How to hide from specific users on Instagram

Finally, spammers and other annoying readers can be blocked or restricted from accessing their account. To do this, click on the unwanted profile three dots in the upper right corner and select Block or Restrict access .

How to block or restrict a user from your Instagram

Restricted account holders will still be able to view your photos and videos and even leave comments on them, but only you and the author will see these comments.

You can also put the user in silent mode if you are tired of his stories and posts in the feed. This can also be done in his profile:

  • Click the button Subscriptions .
  • Select Switch to silent mode .
  • Enable mute mode for Stories , Posts or both.

Setting the Instagram user to silent mode

Your friend will not know anything about it, and you can take a break from the flurry of his photos and look at them only when you are in the mood - his profile will remain visible to you.

How to remove unnecessary push notifications in the Instagram app

Instagram, like any social network, by default sends more notifications than you need. To avoid annoying pop-up notifications that one of your friends has posted a photo for the first time in a long time, you can turn them off. To do this: