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How to delete account data on instagram


How to download everything Instagram knows about me

  • Instagram lets you download an archive of everything you've posted to the site.
  • You can get a copy of your photos, videos, comments, likes, people you follow, contacts and more.
  • We'll show you how to download that archive in this guide.

Instagram co-founder and CEO, Kevin Systrom.

Vivien Killilea

Facebook's Instagram keeps a copy of everything you've ever shared. It's easy to download an archive of that information, so I'm going to show you how.

There are two primary reasons you might want to do this: first, it's worth seeing what sort of private information is stored on Instagram's severs. Second, it's convenient if you want to take all of your data and move to another service.

Here's what I found

I downloaded my archive and discovered that Instagram has access to all my contacts phone contacts -- including their names, email addresses and full names -- even if they don't use Instagram. It also has a copy of:

  • My profile information.
  • Everything I've searched on Instagram.
  • Everyone I follow.
  • Every post I've ever liked.
  • Direct messages I've sent to other users.
  • Every video I've ever posted.
  • Every photo I've ever posted.
  • Every story I've ever shared (Stories are Instagram's Snapchat-like feature.)

The Instagram archive doesn't include any data about ads you've viewed or interacted with, or what sorts of ad topics it think you might be interested in. Facebook must have this data somewhere, but it isn't included in the file you download.

How to download your data

You can download your own archive and discover what Instagram still knows about you. Here's how:

  • Navigate to Instagram.com and select your profile.
  • Click the gear next to your name and select "Privacy and Security."
  • Scroll down to "Data Download" and click "Request Download."
  • Then enter the email you'd like to receive the download link too and verify the request by entering your Instagram password.

While Instagram says it can take up to 48 hours, I received my download link in under thirty minutes.

The data comes through as a zip file with folders for photos, stories, and videos. Anything that isn't a photo or video -- messages, profile, searches, and settings -- are saved in text format that you can open with notepad on a computer.

How to delete your Instagram data:

If you don't want Instagram to have this data, you can delete it all. (Instagram confirms in its FAQ that it's actually deleted.) Doing so requires you to delete your entire account permanently, however. If you don't want to do that, you can temporarily disable your account, too.

Here's how:

  • Visit Instagram's "delete your account page."
  • Select a reason for why you want to delete your data.
  • Click "Permanently delete my account."

That's it. Now you've learned how to download a copy of all of your Instagram data and, if you want, how to delete it.

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How to Permanently Delete Your Instagram Account (2022)

Of course, there comes a time when you might want to disconnect from your social platforms, and not just temporarily. More often than ever, people are choosing to delete their social media presence to live a life less focused on online culture. Whether you’re trying to protect your future job aspects by deleting your social media or just reaching for your phone a little bit less, deleting your social media accounts may lead to a healthier life.

Permanently deleting your Instagram account may seem like a significant step, but it’s easy to carry out if you’re ready to be free of your profile and get some spare time back in your life. Let’s look at how to delete your Instagram account permanently.

Save Your Instagram Data before Deleting Your Account

Before you act out of frustration or want to make a move to delete your Instagram account permanently, it is a good idea to back up your Instagram data. You can’t add it back later, and you may have valuable photos, interactions, and friends. When you delete your account, Instagram will do just that, delete your account and everything in it, including your photos, likes, comments, and friends. To save your account data, follow these steps:

  1. Open Instagram and tap the profile icon in the lower right corner.
  2. Tap the hamburger icon (Menu) in the top right corner, then tap Settings at the bottom.
  3. Select Security, then tap the Download Data option.
  4. Enter your email address and tap Request Download.

Within 48 hours, Instagram will email a complete file of your profile to the email address you provided. The email contains your photos, comments, profile information, and everything else you may need to access in the future. Even if you think you’ll never need this data again, it’s an essential step to ensuring that your information is protected if you ever want to view it. If you don’t do this, you’ll lose your data completely, and you’ll never get it back, no matter how hard you try.

How to Permanently Delete Your Instagram Account

After you’ve saved your Instagram data, you can move on to deleting your Instagram account. There are two options for users. The first is to permanently delete your Instagram account and everything associated with it, while the second is a temporary option.

Permanently deleting your Instagram account can only happen using a browser, but you can do that on both mobile and desktop browsers. Before your profile disappears forever, Instagram makes your account temporarily invisible for 30 days. Therefore, you can reinstate it if you change your mind. Here’s how to permanently delete your Instagram account:

  1. Go to the unique Delete Your Instagram Account page on your browser (ensure that you’re logged in).
  2. Select a reason for deletion from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click or tap the Delete button to confirm your decision.

Temporarily Delete/Disable Your Instagram Account

If you are only looking for a break from Instagram or don’t want to make an irrational decision, disable your Instagram account rather than delete it. Disabling logs you out and hides your profile. As far as your followers are concerned, you may as well have deleted the account. However, this method allows you to reinstate your profile at any time when temporarily disabled by simply logging back in. Follow these steps to disable your account:

  1. Go to Instagram.com from your browser on any device (you cannot do this from the app).
  2. Log in if prompted to do so.
  3. Click or tap on the profile icon in the upper right-hand corner.
  4. Click or tap Profile, then select Edit Profile.
  5. Scroll down and tap Temporarily disable my account to the right of the Submit button.
  6. You get asked why you are doing this. Select an option from the drop-down menu.
  7. Re-enter your account password.
  8. Click or tap Temporarily Disable Account.

Delete or Disable Instagram without Username or Password

If you have been hacked and want to protect your personal information, you might find the above deletion/disable steps easy, but not if you don’t remember your login credentials. Unfortunately, there is no way to delete or disable an account without first logging in, nor can Instagram do it for you. If you cannot remember or find your password, or if it got changed by someone else, follow the below steps to access your account.

Access Instagram without Username/Password on Android or iPhone

  1. Launch the Instagram app.
  2. Tap Get help logging in under the Login button.
  3. The Find your account screen appears. Type in your username, email, or phone, then tap Next. You can also select Log in with Facebook or Continue as [your FB name].
  4. On the new screen, choose Send an email, Send an SMS, or Log in with Facebook.
  5. Enter the confirmation code sent to you and tap Next.

If all went well with the above steps, you should now be on your Instagram account.

If you think you got hacked, you might not be able to use one or all of these methods, depending on how thorough the hacker has been at changing your recovery information.

  1. Open the app.
  2. Tap Get help logging in under the login fields.
  3. Select the option that allows you to enter your username.
  4. Tap Need more help?

From here, you can follow the prompts to contact Instagram. They will likely ask you for information regarding the account, such as previously used passwords, recovery information, etc.

Is There Any Way to Get My Account Back After Deletion?

So, officially there’s no option to get your account back after permanently deleting it. Still, several users swear by a workaround method, as explained below.

To sum it up, you need to report your account as hacked to Instagram, just as we’ve done above. Here’s how to do it.

  1. First, type in your username or email address and click on Instagram’s Get help signing in option.
  2. From here, select Trouble logging in.
  3. Follow the prompts, including selecting the type of account you’d like to recover, then choose My account was hacked to proceed.

  4. Then select hear more about your experience.

  5. Fill out the forms, and Instagram will send you an email within a few hours. You will eventually need to provide some verification, such as images that you’ve uploaded to that account, your username, email address, and verification code, for this to work.

Instagram Account Delete/Disable FAQs

How long does Instagram keep my data after I delete my account?

Instagram states that it can take up to 90 days to completely delete your account, meaning Instagram may still have pieces of information about your account stored on its servers. However, Instagram’s Data Policy also states that the company may keep information about your account beyond 90 days. The information the company may retain is for legal purposes or related to a violation of the company’s Terms of Use.

Can I delete my child’s account?

Unfortunately, you cannot delete your child’s Instagram account, at least not without the user’s login information. Instagram’s policy on account deletion states that only the account owner can delete the profile using the instructions above.

How long until Instagram deletes your account?

If you go through the deletion process outlined above, your Instagram account gets deleted after 30 days following the request, and your IG account becomes invisible so nobody can see it. However, all data stored in backups can take up to 90 days to delete.

If you’re wondering how long it takes Instagram to delete inactive accounts or accounts reported for spam or bots, the answer is less known. Instagram periodically deletes completely inactive accounts and bot accounts through their system. However, no one except for Instagram is entirely sure how often this happens or the parameters for deletion.

Wrapping Up

By resetting and deleting your Instagram account for good, you can finally give yourself some personal time to escape and leave behind the ever-present slog of online culture. Of course, temporarily deactivating your account is a good option if you’re looking to get away for a while, but otherwise, delete away to protect your identity and personality—and your sanity. Do you have any experience or questions regarding deleting an Instagram account? Please share with us in the comment section below.

How to delete an account on Instagram: instructions

Sometimes it is useful to take a break from social networks, but self-discipline allows this only to a few. Then deleting the profile comes to the rescue. We explain how to delete from Instagram permanently or temporarily, saving data

Since March 21, 2022, the social networks Facebook and Instagram have been banned in Russia by a court decision, and the Meta Platforms holding company that owns them has been recognized as an extremist organization and is also banned.

Some users notice that they devote too much time to managing their Instagram account to the detriment of work and personal affairs. Even the owner of Instagram, Meta, admitted in internal documents that its social networks have a negative impact on sleep, work, parenting, work productivity and personal life of approximately 12.5% ​​of users. And scientists from the University of British Columbia found that users' own lives begin to seem insufficiently bright and interesting compared to what they see on Instagram.

Meanwhile, until the spring of 2022, the social network was consistently in the top 10 in terms of downloads in Russia and in the world. The international agency We Are Social estimated that in 2021 Instagram ranked fourth in our country in terms of the number of users (61.2% of Russian Internet users go there), and in total 67.8% of the Russian population (99 million people) use social networks. The average Russian spends 3 hours a day outside of work at the monitor or with a smartphone.

In November 2021, Instagram began testing the Take a Break feature. It will allow users to escape from the continuous viewing of the feed. In the settings, it will be possible to set reminders for breaks, for example, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. After that, the application will issue a warning about the need to rest. However, this feature has been opened to a limited number of users so far.

For now, everyone has the only alternative - to give up Instagram for a while or for good.

How to permanently delete an Instagram account

This option should be chosen when the profile is definitely no longer useful: for example, if we are talking about the account of a company that has closed.

Before deleting a profile, Instagram will offer to save data from it. To do this, you need to send a download request. After that, an email will be sent to your email within 48 hours with a link where you can download photos and videos. You can also request a copy of your data through the Instagram app for Android and iPhone. To do this, open the menu in the profile, go to the "Settings" - "Security" section and select the "Download data" item. Next, you will need to enter your email address and account password.

Download request from Instagram

Even after deleting the profile, it will be visible on the social network for another 30 days. During this time, the user can change his mind and restore the account. If within a month the owner of the profile has never logged into the system, then the account is permanently deleted.

In the web version

To delete a profile using a computer, you need to perform several steps:

  • go to the social network site and click on the "Help" button in the lower right corner;
  • go to the "Help Center" and select the line "Delete your account" in the left menu;
  • follow the link suggested in the article;
  • specify the reason for deleting the profile;
  • confirm the action by entering a password.

From Smartphone

To delete your Instagram profile using your phone, you need to take more steps:

  • log in to your profile in the app and click on "Settings";
  • in the menu that appears, select the line "Help" and go to the "Help Center";
  • on the page that opens, select the item "Manage your account";
  • in the search bar enter the query "Delete profile";
  • go to the article "How to delete your Instagram account";
  • follow the link in the article;
  • specify the reason for deleting the account and enter the page password.

How to temporarily delete an Instagram account

The user can also stop using Instagram for any period and then restore the page. However, you can do this no more than once a week. A temporarily deleted profile is not visible to other users of the social network. To restore it, you just need to log into the application.

In the web version

To temporarily deactivate your profile using a computer, you must perform the following steps:

  • go to the social network site under your account;
  • click on the profile photo and select "Settings" in the menu that opens;
  • at the bottom of the page, click on the link "Temporarily disable my account";
  • on the page that opens, indicate the reason for the temporary disconnection and enter the account password.

From the phone

As in the case of the "permanent" deletion, temporary blocking of Instagram will require more steps:

  • go to your profile;
  • go to the "Settings" section and select the "Help" item;
  • in the menu that appears, click on the line "Help Center";
  • on the support page, open the "Manage your account" item;
  • in the search bar, enter "Temporarily disable";
  • go to the article "How to delete your Instagram account";
  • click on the link "How to temporarily disable your account" and find the article "Instagram. com website from a mobile browser";
  • click on the link in the first paragraph of the instruction and go to the mobile browser;
  • on the main page of the account, click on the "Edit profile" button;
  • select the link "Temporarily disable my account" at the bottom of the page.

Is it possible to delete a blocked Instagram account

To delete your account, you need to know your username and password. A forgotten password can be reset using an email address, phone number, or Facebook account. If the user does not have access to the email address specified during registration, and his Instagram and Facebook accounts are not linked, then the support service will not be able to provide access to the account.

In the event that an Instagram account has been blocked by the social network itself, its owner will see a corresponding message when logging in. He can appeal this decision. To do this, you need to open the app, enter your username and password, and then follow the instructions on the screen.

However, if the user or other person who has the account password deletes it, then Instagram will not be able to restore the profile. In this case, you can create a new account with the same email address, but you probably won't be able to use the old name.

How to delete personal data from social networks (VKontakte, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter)?

Social networks actively collect information about their users and are not at all eager to part with it - even if the account owner makes such a request. We figure out how to delete your data from Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte and Instagram.

  1. Introduction
  2. How to remove information about yourself from Facebook
  3. How to remove information about yourself from Instagram
  4. How to remove information about yourself from Twitter
  5. How to remove information about yourself from VKontakte
  6. Terminals

Introduction

Most social networks base their business on displaying advertisements. For their targeting (personalization of the display), a lot of data from the user profile is used, as well as information about actions in the social network, and sometimes beyond it. By creating a profile on Facebook, VKontakte or Twitter, the user accepts the confidentiality agreement, often without even reading it, and also leaves the privacy settings set by default. This leads to the fact that social services accumulate a huge array of data related to a particular person for years.

Of course, Russian legislation establishes certain rules for the processing of personal data of citizens and limits the possibility of their use, however, not all information about your actions in social networks is subject to Law No. 152-FZ and other regulations. In addition, by registering an account, we usually give the service consent to the processing of our data. However, the operator is under no obligation to provide us with tools for self-management of information about itself.

Interestingly, foreign Internet sites are often more client-oriented in terms of personal data management. This is partly due to more stringent legislation (primarily European and American), partly due to more developed traditions regarding the secrecy of correspondence and personal life, a higher culture of handling such information. Nevertheless, for both Russian and foreign social services, the rule is true: it is much easier for them to become a user and a donor of information than to delete this information later.

In order to minimize the amount of data collected about you by the social network, we recommend that you pay attention to your profile privacy settings as soon as possible (ideally, immediately after registration). If you did not immediately limit the "appetites" of the site, try deleting some of the accumulated information. We have prepared short instructions on how to do this on Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte and Twitter.

How to remove information about yourself from Facebook

Facebook collects a lot of data about the activities of its users. Information that allows you to more accurately target (and therefore sell more expensively) ad impressions is the basis of a social network business. Therefore, she knows and remembers a lot about you: what and when you published, whose post was “liked” and what information they were looking for. Moreover, sometimes Facebook shares some of this data with other online resources - as part of partnership agreements and with your consent (remember the boxes that you checked when logging into a third-party service using your account). There is also a reverse scheme - online stores, banks, taxi services and other companies transmit data about your actions to Facebook in order to “catch up” with you with their advertising on the social network.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans don't trust Facebook to store their personal data, according to a study by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal. If you are also uncomfortable with being tracked by a social network, we recommend limiting its activity in relation to your personal data, as well as deleting information that you do not want to share. This is not to say that this is a very simple and convenient process, but there is an opportunity to clean up your personal data box.

First of all, we recommend downloading the archive of information collected by Facebook about you - in order to understand the scale of the problem and just in case. Here's how to do it:

  • Open the Settings & Privacy menu.
  • Select "Settings".
  • Go to Your Facebook Information.
  • Click Download Information.

By default, all types of data that Facebook collects about you are selected; if necessary, you can disable the download of individual sections. Select the file format - HTML or JSON - as well as the date range and quality level of downloaded photos and videos (the size of the archive depends on this), then click the "Create file" button. In an hour or two, a link to download the archive will be sent to the email associated with the account.

Let's start deleting information. Unfortunately, Facebook does not allow you to “wholesale” destroy all personal information or individual groups of data, but it is possible to get to each individual record. Open the same "Your information on Facebook" section (see above) and select "View my information".

Figure 1. User information accumulated by Facebook

This is a comprehensive library of Facebook data related to you: information about all posts, photos, search history and interactions with other users. We recommend that you carefully study each section and delete redundant data about yourself. Here is a list of 5 sections that you should take a closer look at:

  • "Location and geodata log" - the entire history of your movements recorded by Facebook.
  • "Search history" - a list of your search queries, general and specific for video.
  • "Payment history" - all purchases made through Facebook Pay, as well as a list of linked bank cards.
  • "Apps & Sites" means third-party resources that you sign in to using your Facebook account. They may have access to your data on the social network.
  • "Voice recordings and their text versions" - everything you searched for using voice searches, as well as all recordings made when Facebook decided that you want to use voice search. Take a look here, even if you have never used this feature.

Finally, we recommend that you visit the Off-Facebook Activity page, also located under Your Facebook Information. Here you will find data about third-party sites and services that transmit information about you to Facebook, you can see what specific information they share (section "Manage information about actions outside of Facebook"), and delete it (section "Clear history").

How to delete information about yourself from Instagram

Instagram is part of the Facebook media empire, so the conditions for storing, using and administering user data are largely similar. You can view, download and - in some cases - clear information about your activities within the service. Most of the features for managing your information on Instagram are located in the "Security" section of the "Settings" menu.

In the Data Access section, you can see what information the social network has collected about you. Not all data can be deleted, but the information from the "Account Activity" section can and should be cleared.

Figure 2. User data collected by Instagram

The Apps & Sites menu item contains information about third-party services related to Instagram. If you used your account details to log in to another site, then its owners may have access to some information from your profile. We recommend that you audit the connected services and remove those that you no longer use.

Instagram stores and uses your search history for personalization purposes. This information is involved in the formation of a "smart feed" and the display of targeted advertising. You can view the relevant data and clear it in the "Search History" section.

To download an archive of all the data collected about you by Instagram, you need to go to the "Download data" section, enter the email address where the link will be sent, and click the "Request file" button. Interestingly, you can specify any mailbox as a recipient, not just the one associated with your profile. To verify the request, Instagram will prompt you to enter a valid password for your account.

How to remove your information from Twitter

Just like Facebook, Twitter collects a lot of information about you to manage smart feed (show posts based on your preferences) and target ads. Removing or preventing the storage of some of such information may affect the operation of these services; This is something to keep in mind when changing your privacy settings on Twitter.

You can download data about you accumulated by the social network; this will allow you to understand what personal information Twitter holds, as well as to have an archive of published posts and photos. To request a download of information, follow these steps:

  • Open Settings & Privacy from the main menu.
  • Select "Your account" and click "Download your data archive".
  • Click the "Request Archive" button in the "Twitter Data" section.

After the social network generates an archive with information about you, a link to download it will be sent to the e-mail specified in your account.

Unfortunately, you can remove all information about yourself from Twitter only by deleting your profile, and even then in this matter you will have to rely on the honesty of the service. However, you can adjust the privacy of your account to reduce the amount of information about your activity saved by the social network. To do this, in the "Settings and Privacy" section of the main menu, select the "Privacy and Security" item.

Figure 3. Off-Twitter data management menu

In the “Sharing and acting outside of Twitter” section, there are four important privacy sections:

9003 “Ad preferences1”. This is where information about your interests is stored, based on which Twitter serves ads. You can either completely disable ad personalization or uncheck individual items. Scroll through the "Interests" list - I'm sure you will find unexpected topics there.
  • "Actions outside of Twitter." The social network can follow you not only when you view the feed, but also when you visit third-party sites - for example, if someone's tweets are embedded in their pages. In addition, Twitter collects data about your devices and browsers in order to personalize the content shown. If you do not want such close attention to your person, disable these features.
  • "Provision of data to business partners". We recommend that you uncheck the box next to "Allow to provide additional information to business partners" in order to exclude the potential possibility of disclosing information that is important to you.
  • "Location Information". Open the Visited Places section and clear the list of locations saved there. Additionally, we recommend that you block Twitter from tracking and saving your location altogether - this can be done in the mobile application. So information about your movements will be protected from possible leaks.

    • To complete the process of removing redundant data about yourself on Twitter, take a look at the "Security and account access" section, which is also located in the "Settings and privacy" menu. Here you can edit the list of applications that are associated with your account - for example, they used its data for authorization.

    How to remove information about yourself from VKontakte

    Unfortunately, the leading Russian social network does not provide the user with advanced tools for managing personal data. Even the basic function of downloading an archive of personal information appeared in it only a couple of years ago. To ensure the necessary level of confidentiality of information, the creators of VKontakte offer to set the visibility of information about you for other people and services (this can be done in the "Privacy" section), but they do not allow you to regulate their storage and further use.

    You can delete all information about yourself from VKontakte only when deleting your account. However, even in this case, your data will be stored on the servers of the social network for some more time, during which you will be given the opportunity to restore your profile.

    Figure 4. Information about data management in VKontakte

    select the "Data Management Order" section. From it you can find out what information the social network collects about you and how it uses it. The button for requesting the accumulated data archive is located at the bottom of the page. The download link will be sent to the email address associated with your account. The term for completing the application is from three hours to several days, depending on the composition of the requested information.

    Conclusions

    The most effective way to delete data from social networks is to completely delete your account. Theoretically, one month after you have deactivated your profile, all data associated with it should be deleted from the servers of the company that owns the service. In practice, this does not always happen. If, 30 days after deleting your account, you find that your information is still being used by a social network, you need to contact its technical support with a letter withdrawing consent to the processing of personal information, and if this does not help, write a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor.

    However, deleting an account is a drastic measure. In the vast majority of cases, information about the user's actions in the social network is used to make his work with the service more convenient. Simple rules of information hygiene will help you find a balance between a comfortable level of privacy and the use of the platform for communication and entertainment: