Instagram’s new location-sharing update is raising privacy concerns, with users reporting their whereabouts were shared without their knowledge despite Meta saying the update is opt-in.
Experts warn that location-sharing features are linked to a higher risk of tech-based coercive control.
The controversy follows other recent privacy issues for Meta, including a lawsuit over the misuse of sensitive health data from a women’s health tracking app.
Contacted a bunch of people to tell them to turn this off. None of them knew. Hope they get the absolute fuck sued out of them
Its a feature my kids dealt with between themselves and their friends years ago(yes, on Instagram). This is the same generation that randomly lets friends borrow their phones and even post as eachother on various platforms.
I’m not saying its a non-issue, but those ignorant of it are truly ignorant, not-so-much newsworthy.
Why are people giving any Meta app Location Permissions? …or even installing that shit to begin with?
nobody needs to install it nowadays, because it comes preinstalled on all phones. and lots of people just mindlessly allow every kind of permission
And all their friends and crushes use it.
Is it really preinstalled on all phones? Not on iphones and neither on my Samsung S22 or my Pixels.
Android is the devil when it comes to it. My S22+ certainly did have “Meta App Manager” and “Meta Package Installer” hidden as system services, which could only be removed using ADB.
That’s because they’re both flagship phones, budget phones have a ton of bloatware installed on them (including cheaper Samsung phones)
Can confirm I had to remove “Meta App Manager” off my old S22+ as of ~6 months ago
Just got samsung phone and FB was preinstalled. You will probably be pissed the next time you get a phone.
maybe flagship phones are different, but I don’t think I ever had such a device in my hands. I regularly help people with affordable phones, and as far as I can tell each had them preinstalled
People still use instagram, that’s bad.
I don’t use Instagram, so I’m out of the loop. What’s going on? As far as I remember people were always allowed to mark thier location in post.
AFAIK the new update makes it so your current location is shared with every post, by default, rather than just being something you can do if you feel like it
Shocked I tell ya. /s
So happy to have deleted all meta apps including whatsapp!
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Isn’t this the same thing Snapchat did years ago?
Still does. This article should have been a PSA about an on-going issue with multiple apps, but they insisted on a villain to blame as somehow being worse than others. All of these apps will randomly and repeatedly ask to enable such things; They have done so for years and years.
That they haven’t done, in my experience. I deleted Snapchat a while ago, but I don’t recall it prompting me repeatedly to enable location. I’m still on Instagram now, and I’ve had the location permission off probably forever, and I’ve never noticed it asking for it.
Snapchat is not one I expected to be an exception, but I don’t use it and I prevented my kids from using it until they turned 16(ish?). Took that long for them to demonstrate anything like critical thinking and self-restraint re: social media.
What are these poor instagram users supposed to do? NOT using Instagram?? That’s insane
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