Meta announced three new features for Instagram this week that promise to “help users connect.” Two are fairly innocuous: the ability to share public Reels, and a new “Friends” tab where you can see content your friends have liked and commented on.
The third, however, is more concerning.
Instagram now has its own Instagram “Friend Map,” which you can use “to responsibly share your location with friends you pick using the Instagram Map.” You can share your location with friends and vice versa.
It’s likely that this feature has been rolled out to compete with SnapChat’s popular “Snap Map” feature, which offers a similar friend map functionality that has been active since 2017. Currently, Instagram location sharing is only available in the US, but it will be rolled out globally. The purpose of the feature is described by Instagram as a way to “stay up-to-date with friends.”
But Meta’s past controversies and financial incentives raise questions about the safety of sharing your location data and illustrate the privacy risks of turning on location tracking.
How does Instagram location sharing work?
Location tracking(yeni pencere) through social media tools is fairly simple. Social mapping tools use the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in your smartphone to locate you. This geolocation system is powered by satellites orbiting earth and doesn’t require internet connection or telephone reception to operate.
On iOS(yeni pencere) and Android(yeni pencere), you can control if and when you share your GPS location. You can dictate which apps can access it and when they can do so. Instagram uses your GPS location, Bluetooth, and WiFi connections to determine your location(yeni pencere) when you switch on Location Services. It also estimates your location when you:
- Enter your location on your profile
- Tag your location in posts, Reels, or Stories
- Check in at an event on Facebook
- Provide your address in Marketplace
With the launch of the new Friend Map feature, Instagram now creates a map for users that shows the current location of friends who’ve opted to share their location. According to Meta, any content with a location tagged can show up on the map including:
- Reels, posts, and Stories from people you follow, available for 24 hours after they’re posted
- Notes from people you mutually follow, available for 24 hours after they’ve been posted
Your location is switched off by default when you first access your Instagram Map, but it’s unclear whether the app will switch on your location if you visit a second time. Location services have to be enabled on your device for the feature to be switched on, which it might be if you’ve ever tagged your location in an Instagram Story or in a post on your feed. If you choose to share your location, you’ll be able to see it using the map at the top of your inbox.
Is location sharing on Instagram safe?
Sharing your location with a loved one on social media might feel safe: You can find someone easily if one of you is lost, or you can make sure that your child is in a safe location. Since around 2017, location sharing for social purposes has been fairly ubiquitous. It’s marketed as a way to blend your “real” and online life and connect with your friends and family.
Social media platforms are normalizing this technology because there’s an incentive for them to do so — and it’s not your safety. What it actually does is present an opportunity for Big Tech platforms such as Google and Meta to invade your privacy and sell your data.
Giving your location away freely via Instagram or any other platform may not feel invasive, but it has far-reaching consequences. Your location is a valuable data point for both governments and advertisers. Advertisers can see where you go, understand your habits and routine, and market to you accordingly. Your data, including your location, is used to create a detailed digital profile of you which can be sold to data brokers and third parties.
Governments can also use your data for surveillance purposes. They don’t need a warrant to do so when you share your location via social media. Law enforcement is relying increasingly on social media data(yeni pencere) to build cases and prosecute people. Your location gives away personal information about you — which could be used to prosecute you if you live under a regime criminalizing things like abortion, visa violations, or homosexuality.
Beyond Big Tech’s invasion of your privacy, location sharing also creates opportunities for cyberstalking. Domestic violence charity Refuge(yeni pencere) writes that “modern technology gives abusers ever-growing ways to stalk, isolate, and control women using the tools of everyday life.” In this context, creating a live feed of a person’s activity is incredibly dangerous. Creating a live feed of a child’s activity is even more dangerous.
The risks of sharing your location on a regular basis through social media far outweigh the benefits. If you’re ready to push back on the normalization of sharing your location online, it’s easy to take control of this data.
What can you do to protect your location?
Thankfully, it’s easy to see if you’re sharing your location on Instagram. You may have already received a notification asking if you’d like to start using the Instagram Friend Map, which you can reject. If you’ve switched on location services, you can simply switch them back off.
How to turn off Instagram Map
- Select Messages.
- Select Map at the top of your inbox.
- Select Settings.
- Select No one and select Done to save your changes.
How to turn off location services on your device
Your smartphone or tablet has location services settings which you can customize. You can switch off location services directly for the Instagram app from the app permissions, or you can also switch off location services altogether.
On iOS, you can find these settings under Privacy & Security. You can see which apps, if any, have location tracking enabled, as well as if you’re using Share My Location which allows you to enable the Find my iPhone feature.
On Android, you can find location services and location app permissions in your general settings.
Once you’ve decided if and when you’d like to share your location, you can rest assured that you’re in control of this sensitive data.
Instagram’s Friend Map feature is a great reminder that location sharing shouldn’t be the norm
Big Tech companies will always push for us to share more and more data because it’s in their best interest, not ours. You have the right to live a private and offline life, and this is one of the easiest steps you can take to do that.
