New insights into Instagram‘s privacy settings proves once and for all that the concept of online privacy really is a fairytale.
The social media platform has caused some users to collectively freak out—and hit delete faster than you can say #NoFilter—after admitting that a flaw in their privacy settings means many photos shared under private accounts could be visible to pretty much anyone.
A Quartz report published earlier this week outlined scary details about the loophole. Basically, any time you post an image, and your account isn’t set to private, it can be seen in a web browser by anyone who has the URL, which seems obvious. But, if you then go ahead and decide change your account to private later, those images you originally posted under the public account are still fully visible with that same URL, although your privacy settings have changed. Cue face palm.
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These issue has probably been going unnoticed since the app first launched, but Instagram says it recently fixed up the loophole, and claims that now your private images are completely hidden to anyone who you haven’t approved as a follower. Anyone trying to visit a private picture through a web browser should land at a message that says, “Page Not Found.”
Still skeptical? You should be, because Instagram’s privacy issue isn’t completely resolved. Any time you share an Instagram snap to another website like Facebook, those images are still accessible through the URL we talked about earlier.
To be honest, we’re not really shocked at the Quartz report finding. Sure, it’s annoying, but these reports are all too common—in fact, mere months ago we learned Snapchat didn’t actually delete those nude selfies as promised, but simply “hid” the photos, while Facebook is constantly under fire for its questionable privacy policies.
The moral of the story here, dear readers: Assume that nothing you post to social media (or share via text, for that matter) is ever truly private, and you should always approach online settings with a healthy level of skepticism. If you don’t want something to be seen by more than one person, don’t send it. It’s that simple.
