Instagram Maps feature raises privacy concerns among some users

NBC News

19 hours ago

The rollout of a new Instagram Map has prompted confusion among some users of the app, who voiced their privacy concerns online after Meta unveiled the feature.
The purpose of the maps feature, according to a press release from Meta, is to provide a 'lightweight' method for users to connect with each other and explore local happenings by allowing people to share where they are in real time. Users can access their 'maps' by going to their DMs.
When users click on the map, it shows the geolocation of users who have opted into sharing their location, based on the last time they opened Instagram or shared an Instagram story. When users first open the map, they are prompted with options of 'who can see your location,' allowing them to choose whether or not they want to share their location.
After the feature was unveiled on Wednesday, users began sharing screenshots of what the map looks like on their pages. A handful of posts criticizing the feature have amassed hundreds of thousands of views as they circulate across X, Threads, TikTok and Instagram itself. Some of the most viral posts were from people like influencer and 'Bachelor' franchise alum Kelley Flanagan, who issued a warning to people online to turn their location-sharing off, suggesting it could be a risk to their privacy and safety.
'Meta has a poor track record when it comes to data privacy,' Lia Haberman, author of the social media newsletter ICYMI, told NBC News in an email interview.
Just this week, Haberman noted that a California jury ruled Meta violated the state's Invasion of Privacy Act in a case involving the period-tracking app Flo. (A Meta spokesperson told CNBC that the company disagreed with the ruling.)
'User data is Meta's golden goose, it's what they've been able to sell to advertisers for years — mostly ethically and legally but not always,' Haberman said.
Meta emphasized that 'location sharing is off unless you opt in. If you do share your location with friends, you have controls to customize this experience.' Users can select specific followers who see their location, or those on their 'close friends' list.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri doubled down on that sentiment, writing in a Threads post that he uses 'the map to share what I'm up to with a handful of my closest friends, and I curate that list carefully.'
Still, Haberman said, she's concerned that users won't realize the full extent of what they've provided Instagram access to, or when their location might show up on the map, through tagging places in their posts or just opening the app.
The platform is not the first to introduce such location-sharing capabilities. Many young social media users have utilized a similar feature on the app Snapchat, where 'Snap Map' has been in place since June 2017. Some social media users also likened Instagram Maps to the once-popular FourSquare Swarm app, which allowed users to 'check-in' to their favorite places, discover new spots and stay connected with friends.
In recent years, Instagram and other social media platforms have faced scrutiny from lawmakers and organizations about online safety, particularly around teen users.
With Maps, Meta says that its supervision features allow parents to be notified when a teen starts sharing their location, and can turn their teen's access off to the feature at any time, if they use Meta's parental controls. (Though many teens maintain accounts hidden from their parents.)
Common Sense Media, a group that studies the impact of media and technology on kids and families, published a report in 2023 that found that location-sharing on social media platforms, which it defined as 'automatic sharing of users' locations,' had two potential negative experiences for young female users. There are 'concerns about safety,' the group wrote, as well as the 'Fear of missing out ('FOMO') or social exclusion' among users. But the positive impact could be 'Social connection.'
Still, 'girls were most likely to say that location-sharing (45%) and public accounts (33%) have had a mostly negative effect on them, compared to other features,' the report found.
In 2024, after news outlets first reported on Instagram's plans to develop a 'Friend Map,' several lawmakers issued concerns about how this type of feature could cause harm to younger users.
'Instagram's proposed feature will require the tracking of young people and their devices' locations,' Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., wrote in a May 21, 2024 letter to Mosseri, calling geolocation surveillance of minors 'an unnecessary violation of privacy.'
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also responded to the 'Friend Map' development reports last year, writing in an X post in March, 'We should be doing all we can to protect our kids' safety on social media — not exposing their real-time location to pedophiles and traffickers.'
Blackburn raised similar concerns about Snap Map in 2019, writing in a letter to CEO Evan Spiegel that 'if location is left in public mode, Snap Map can reveal the location of gullible child users to complete strangers, along with their Snap video feed.'
At a Senate hearing in 2021, Jennifer Stout, vice president of global public policy for Snap Inc., said the app 'makes it intentionally difficult for strangers to find people that they don't know. We do not have open profiles, we do not have browsable pictures. We don't have the ability to understand who people's friends are and where they go to school.'
Representatives from Blackburn, Castor and Trahan's offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday regarding Instagram's official launch of their new feature.
Many Instagram users said they worry that the new feature could also put other vulnerable groups at risk — including creators, who have very public personas, and women, who often face harassment online.
'When you're constantly broadcasting where you are in real time, you're sharing your daily routines,' Caitlin Sarian, known to her 1.4 million Instagram followers as cybersecuritygirl, said in a video post on Wednesday. '... where you live, where you work, literally everything about you to potential hackers, stalkers, bad exes, all of the above.'
Another creator, known as Nerdytravelingwriter on TikTok, echoed similar concerns in a video posted on Wednesday, calling it a 'safety issue.'
'Think of how many creators have stalkers,' the creator, who has over 895,000 followers on TikTok said. 'I'm thinking of my followers who just got out of abusive relationships. They're still mutuals with their abusers.'
Instagram's help center does note that users are able to hide their locations in the map feature from specific accounts if they choose, which could help those who know which profiles may want to use the information for malicious purposes.
'If you see that you've shared your location in the past with Instagram via phone settings, it does NOT mean the map feature is turned on automatically or that people can see your location,' the platform wrote in its Instagram story. 'The reason you're seeing your story, post or reel show up on the map is because you've tagged it with a location. It will appear on the map for 24 hours and does not share your real-time or live location.'
When asked for comment on the concerns, a Meta spokesperson reiterated Instagram's policy, stating that the Map feature 'is off by default, and your live location is never shared unless you choose to turn it on. If you do, only people you follow back — or a private, custom list you select — can see your location.'
Haberman, who was among those posting about the recent Instagram news on Threads, suggested one of the main reasons Instagram's feature is being met with some criticism is because it came as a surprise to users.
'That's fine for something with no stakes,' she said. 'but a map of people's locations has a very real world impact. More care should have been taken.'