Latest news with #InvasionofPrivacyAct
India Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Instagram boss says users are confused by new location sharing tool amid stalking concerns
Instagram's latest update was meant to make it easier for friends to find each other, but it's ended up making some users feel a little too easy to find. The photo-sharing app has recently rolled out Instagram Map, a new location-sharing feature buried inside the direct messages tab. Meta, Instagram's parent company, pitched it as a 'lightweight' way for people to connect with pals and discover what's happening nearby. In practice? It shows exactly where people are, in real time, if they've chosen to share their the map reveals the locations of anyone who's opted in, based either on their last Instagram activity or the most recent Story they posted. First-time users are met with a prompt asking who can see their location, with options ranging from 'no one' to 'close friends' to 'followers you select.'On paper, it's a gentle nudge towards local discovery. In reality, it's sparked a mini privacy panic. Within hours of launch on Wednesday, screenshots of the map flooded X, Threads, TikTok and Instagram itself. Some posts racked up hundreds of thousands of views, particularly from influencers and celebrities warning followers to check their settings. One of the loudest voices was Bachelor alum and lifestyle influencer Kelley Flanagan, who bluntly urged people to 'turn off' the feature, hinting it could open the door to unwanted tracking or even media commentator Lia Haberman, who writes the popular ICYMI newsletter, told NBC News she wasn't surprised by the backlash. 'Meta doesn't have the shiniest history when it comes to protecting user privacy,' she said, noting that only days earlier, a California jury found Meta had violated the state's Invasion of Privacy Act in a case tied to the Flo period-tracking app. (Meta has said it disagrees with the ruling.)'User data is the company's golden goose,' Haberman added. 'They've built an empire selling it to advertisers, usually within legal boundaries, but not always.'Meta, for its part, insists the new map is safe by design. 'Location sharing is off unless you actively switch it on,' the company said in a statement, adding that users can tightly control who sees them, from hand-picking followers to limiting it to a curated 'close friends' chief Adam Mosseri also tried to calm nerves in a Threads post. He said he personally uses the map to let a small, carefully chosen group of friends know what he's up to, and encouraged others to be equally Haberman worries the real risk lies in what users don't realise they've shared. Even if they never manually switch on the map, she warned, their location could still pop up through tagged posts, Stories, or simply by opening the app while the feature is the concept sounds familiar, that's because it is. Snapchat has had its Snap Map since 2017, letting users track friends' locations in near real-time. Older social media veterans compared Instagram's version to the once-popular FourSquare Swarm, which revolved around 'checking in' to places, finding new hangouts and seeing who was in today's climate of heightened data privacy awareness, Instagram's timing feels bold. The idea of your movements being visible to others, even with controls, can easily tip from 'fun' to 'creepy,' especially for women, public figures and younger to switch it offTo disable Instagram's location sharing, head to the settings and click on "Story, live and location". Once the map view opens, select the settings icon in the top-right corner. Under the 'Who can see your location' option, choose 'No one', then tap 'Done' to save your who have set up Instagram's supervision tools for teens also have a say. They'll be notified if their child enables location sharing, can approve or block it, and can even see who the teen is sharing their location with.- Ends
NBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- NBC News
Instagram Maps feature raises privacy concerns among some users
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.'
Tom's Guide
5 days ago
- Health
- Tom's Guide
Jury finds Meta illegally collected data from women's health app Flo — what you need to know
On Friday, a federal jury ruled that Meta – the last defendant in a lawsuit that initially also included Google, Flo Health and Flurry – had illegally collected user health data from period and pregnancy tracking app Flo. The jury found that Meta violated California's Invasion of Privacy Act by collecting data from Flo without user consent which violates the state's wiretap law. The lawsuit was filed in 2021 against Flo Health, the maker of the app which tracks periods, ovulation and pregnancy; later other defendants were added including Meta, Google and Flurry, which is an app analytics company. The plaintiff's trial brief stated that Flo's onboarding survey required users to select a goal: whether they were currently pregnant, wanted to be pregnant, wanted to track a period or input other information (about pregnancy or a menstrual cycle). While Flo said it would not disclose the information provided to it, it then gave access to both Google and Meta through CAEs (Custom App Events) in their respective SDKs (Software Development Kits) that were incorporated into the Flo App. The plaintiff's brief said that each company had its own purpose in collecting and using the user data from the Flo app: Flo used it to acquire new users through advertising and marketing and also sold access to the CAEs to other third parties for profit. Meanwhile Google and Meta each used the data for their own commercial purposes, including 'to feed their machine learning algorithms that power each of their respective advertising networks.' This activity occurred between November 2016 and February 2019. The plaintiffs proved by a preponderance of evidence that Meta had intentionally eavesdropped on and/or recorded conversations using an electronic device, and that the company did not have consent from all parties to do so. According to the verdict released by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the plaintiffs proved they had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Flo Health's trial brief, although it was filed before that company's settlement, stated the plaintiffs had consented to the very policies and practices they were now attacking and that 'every version of the Flo Privacy Policy explicitly permitted Flo to use third-party analytics to monitor and improve the App and permitted Flo to share de-identified information for any purpose.' The plaintiffs brief countered that Flo did not disclose it would share users' private health data with third parties, and that in fact, it promised the opposite. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The other defendants – Flo Health, Google and Flurry – all settled with the plaintiffs before the trial, though no details about two of those have been provided, the Flurry settlement is said to have been for $3.5 million and is still pending court approval. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
