New Instagram location sharing feature sparks privacy fears
Some users have since been shocked to discover that their location was being shared, viral posts have shown.
"Mine was turned on and my home address was showing for all of my followers to see," Instagram user Lindsey Bell wrote in reply to a warning posted by "Bachelor" reality television personality Kelley Flanagan to her 300,000 TikTok followers.
"Turned it off immediately once I knew but had me feeling absolutely sick about it."
In a TikTok video, Flanagan called Instagram's new location sharing feature "dangerous" and gave step-by-step instructions on how to make sure it is turned off.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri fired off a post on Meta-owned Threads stressing that Instagram location sharing is off by default, meaning users need to opt in for it to be active.
"Quick Friend Map clarification, your location will only be shared if you decide to share it, and if you do, it can only be shared with a limited group of people you choose," Mosseri wrote.
"To start, location sharing is completely off."
The feature was added as a way for friends to better connect with one another, sharing posts from "cool spots," Instagram said in a blog post.
Users can be selective regarding who they share locations with, and can turn it off whenever they wish, according to Instagram.
Wariness regarding whether Instagram is watching out for user privacy comes just a week after a federal jury in San Francisco sided with women who accused Meta of exploiting health data gathered by the Flo app, which tracks menstruation and efforts to get pregnant.
A jury concluded that Meta used women's sensitive health data to better target money-making ads, according to law firm Labaton Keller Sucharow, which represented the plaintiffs.
Evidence at trial showed Meta was aware it was getting confidential health data from the third-party app, and that some employees appeared to mock the nature of the information, the law firm contended.
"This case was about more than just data -- it was about dignity, trust, and accountability," lead attorney Carol Villegas said in a blog post.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
11 hours ago
- Euronews
Why are social media sites betting on crowdsourced fact-checking?
TikTok is the latest social media platform to launch a crowdsourced fact-checking feature. The short-form video app is rolling out the feature, called Footnotes, first in the United States. It lets users write a note with more context on a video and vote on whether other comments should appear under a video. A footnote could share a researcher's view on a 'complex STEM-related topic' or highlight new statistics to give a fuller picture on an ongoing event, the company said. The new feature is similar to other community-based fact-checking features on social media platforms such as X and Meta's Facebook or Instagram. But why are social media giants moving towards this new system to fact-check online claims? What is community fact-checking? Scott Hale, an associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, said that Twitter, now X, started the charge to community notes in 2021 with a feature called Birdwatch. The experiment carried on after Elon Musk took control of the company in 2022. Otavio Vinhas, a researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Informational Disputes and Sovereignties in Brazil, said that Meta's introduction of a community notes programme earlier this year is in line with a trend led by US President Donald Trump to move towards a more libertarian view of free speech on social media. 'The demand is that platforms should commit to this [libertarian view],' Vinhas told Euronews Next. 'For them, fair moderation would be moderation that prioritises free speech without much concern to the potential harm or the potential false claims it can push up'. Hale told Euronews Next there is some scientific proof behind crowdsourcing, with studies showing that crowds could often arrive at the right verdict when evaluating whether information was well fact-checked or not. They often agreed with professionals, he said. But TikTok's Footnotes is slightly different than other crowdsourcing initiatives on Meta or X, Vinhas said. That's because the programme still asks users to add the source of information for their note, which Vinhas says is not mandatory on X. Most notes don't end up on the platforms Where the challenge lies for all social media companies is getting the right people to see the notes, Hale said. All three community programmes use a bridge-based ranking system that ranks how similar you are to another user based on the content that a user consumes, based either on the other accounts they follow or the videos they watch, Hale said. The algorithm shows the content to users that are considered 'dissimilar' to each other to see if they both find the note helpful, Hale said. Notes that pass the test will then be visible on the platform. What tends to happen, though, is that the vast majority of the notes that are written on the platform are actually never seen, Vinhas said. A June study from the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA) of English and Spanish community notes on X found that over 90 per cent of the 1.7 million notes available on a public database never made it online. Notes that did make it to the platform took an average of 14 days to be published, down from 100 days in 2022, even though there are still delays to how quickly X responds to these notes, the DDIA report continued. 'I don't think these platforms can achieve the promise of bringing consensus and make the internet this marketplace of ideas in which the best information and the best ideas end up winning the argument,' Vinhas said. Hale said it can be difficult for users to come across notes that might contradict their point of view because of 'echo chambers' on social media, where content is shown that reinforces the beliefs that users already have. 'It's very easy to get ourselves into parts of networks that are similar to us,' he said. One way to improve the efficiency of community notes would be to gamify them, Hale continued. He suggested the platforms could follow Wikipedia's example, where contributing users have their own page with their edits. The platform also offers a host of service awards to editors based on the value of their contributions and the length of their service, and lets them take part in contests and fundraisers. What else do social media sites do to moderate content on their platforms? Community fact-checking is not the only method that social media companies use to limit the spread of mis- or disinformation on their platforms, Hale and Vinhas said. Meta, X, and TikTok all use some degree of automated moderation to distinguish potentially harmful or violent content. Over at Meta, the company said it relies on artificial intelligence (AI) systems to scan content proactively and immediately remove it if it matches known violations of its community standards or code of conduct. When that content is flagged, human moderators review individual posts to see if the content actually breaches the code or if some context is missing. Hale said that it can be difficult for automated systems to flag new problematic content because it recognises the repeated claims of misinformation that it has been trained on, meaning new lies can slip through the cracks. Users themselves can also report to the platforms when there is a piece of content that may violate community standards, Hale said. However, Meta said that community notes would replace relationships with conventional fact-checkers, who flagged and labeled misinformation for almost a decade in the United States. So far, there are no signs that the platform will end these partnerships in the United Kingdom and the European Union, media reports suggest. Hale and Vinhas said professional fact-checking and community notes can actually complement one another if done properly. In that case, platforms would have an engaged community of people adding context in notes as well as the rigor of professional fact-checkers who can take additional steps, such as calling experts or going straight to a source to verify whether something is true or not, Hale added. Professional fact-checkers often have context as well to the political, social, and economic pulse of the countries where disinformation campaigns may be playing out, Vinhas said. 'Fact-checkers will be actively monitoring [a] political crisis on a 24-7 basis almost, while users may not be as much committed to information integrity,' he said. For now, Vinhas said TikTok's model is encouraging because it is being used to contribute to a 'global fact-checking programme,' but he said there's no indication whether this will continue to be the case.
France 24
15 hours ago
- France 24
NBA to open season with blockbuster showdowns: report
The season will tip off on October 21 and the opening night games will be aired by NBC, marking the league's return to the broadcaster for the first time in 23 years. The 2025-26 season is the first of an 11-year media rights deal for the NBA worth a reported $76 billion. It includes a new partnership with Amazon, a return to NBC and a continuing partnership with ESPN and ABC, with ABC to carry a blockbuster Christmas day slate. The Cleveland Cavaliers, who had the best record in the Eastern Conference last season, are scheduled to play on Christmas against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. It will be the Cavs' first Christmas appearance since superstar LeBron James played for his hometown team. Another Christmas game will see Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City. James and the Los Angeles Lakers host the Houston Rockets, the Dallas Mavericks visit the Golden State Warriors and Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets host the Minnesota Timberwolves in other holiday matchups.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
New Instagram location sharing feature sparks privacy fears
The Meta-owned image sharing platform added an option on Wednesday which shares locations using an Instagram map, similar to a feature rival Snapchat has offered since 2017. Some users have since been shocked to discover that their location was being shared, viral posts have shown. "Mine was turned on and my home address was showing for all of my followers to see," Instagram user Lindsey Bell wrote in reply to a warning posted by "Bachelor" reality television personality Kelley Flanagan to her 300,000 TikTok followers. "Turned it off immediately once I knew but had me feeling absolutely sick about it." In a TikTok video, Flanagan called Instagram's new location sharing feature "dangerous" and gave step-by-step instructions on how to make sure it is turned off. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri fired off a post on Meta-owned Threads stressing that Instagram location sharing is off by default, meaning users need to opt in for it to be active. "Quick Friend Map clarification, your location will only be shared if you decide to share it, and if you do, it can only be shared with a limited group of people you choose," Mosseri wrote. "To start, location sharing is completely off." The feature was added as a way for friends to better connect with one another, sharing posts from "cool spots," Instagram said in a blog post. Users can be selective regarding who they share locations with, and can turn it off whenever they wish, according to Instagram. Wariness regarding whether Instagram is watching out for user privacy comes just a week after a federal jury in San Francisco sided with women who accused Meta of exploiting health data gathered by the Flo app, which tracks menstruation and efforts to get pregnant. A jury concluded that Meta used women's sensitive health data to better target money-making ads, according to law firm Labaton Keller Sucharow, which represented the plaintiffs. Evidence at trial showed Meta was aware it was getting confidential health data from the third-party app, and that some employees appeared to mock the nature of the information, the law firm contended. "This case was about more than just data -- it was about dignity, trust, and accountability," lead attorney Carol Villegas said in a blog post.
