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Instagram is a widely used social media platform for sharing photos, short videos, and live feeds. Although they have over a billion monthly active users, they have even more users who just lurk. Lurking means they scroll and view content without engaging with you in any way. You might have wondered from time to time if anyone was stalking your public Instagram posts that you were unaware of. So, does it allowed to see who views your Instagram in 2024? Let's take a look and find out!
Instagram and Facebook, both owned under the umbrella corporation of Meta, do not allow users to see who views their profile in an attempt to protect people's privacy online. So you can visit someone's profile and scroll through all their public content, and as long as you don't like or comment on any of it, they will never know. Similarly, you won't know who is quietly lurking around your profile as well. This can be both a blessing and a curse, as curiosity feeds both the desire to creep on people's profiles and the desire to see who's keeping tabs on you.
Here are some of the reasons Instagram has given for its strict privacy rules:
#1. User Privacy: By keeping account viewing private, Instagram can encourage people to browse and spend more time on the app without feeling monitored.
#2. User Safety: Instagram is invested in preventing stalking and harassment.
#3. Preventing Bias: By keeping account viewing private, Instagram helps to minimize bias and discrimination based on the accounts a person follows or engages with. Again, this encourages users to freely explore content without the fear of being judged or labeled.
You can learn more about Instagram's privacy policies here, on their safety page.
As stated above, what people view on Instagram is kept private. However, once you take action on any public account, such as following a user, liking a post, making comments, or clicking on hashtags, your information is no longer a secret. It would be incredibly hard for anyone to track all of this data across multiple accounts, however, and that's where Snoopreport comes in handy.
What can you anticipate in your Snoopreport? Curious about which accounts someone frequently "likes" or who their most avid supporters are? In addition to followers and likes, you can track hashtag usage and overall activity on the platform. This information can be utilized for both personal and professional purposes. The best aspect is that it's entirely legal and simple to execute. Sign up and begin for as low as $0.99 per week.
A quick Google search will show you that there are many third-party apps that claim they show you who is secretly viewing your Instagram profile. A word of caution, every single one of these apps is fake. Instagram has this data locked down tight. Most of these apps are scams designed to make you pay money before finding out they can't deliver as promised while at the same time collecting your login information which they can also sell, not to mention the fact that once you give these apps your login credentials, Instagram will likely shut down your account, so, steer clear of these types of apps.
The one place where viewing information isn't kept a secret is on Instagram stories. You might be able to use that to your advance to see who your Instagram stalkers are. Instagram keeps a "view list" on stories for 24 hours or as long as the story is live. If you have a business account, you can have access to this data for up to 48 hours.
To see who has viewed your stories, simply go to one of your current stories and swipe upwards. You'll see a list of viewers as well as a heart next to anyone who has engaged with your story. It's worth noting here that there are two tabs in this area. The tab with the eye icon is the viewers, and the tab that looks like a chart is where you can see poll results if you added a poll to your story.
As long as an account is public, you can view their feed posts and videos anonymously. If their account is private, however, you'll be out of luck. If the account is public but has previously blocked you, there is a workaround trick to view their content still.
There are some free websites that allow you to view public Instagram profiles and their content even if you are blocked or don't have your own Instagram account at all. You can do a Google search for "view Instagram anonymously" to find several of them.
One of these services is called Mollygram. As long as you know their username, you can input it and be able to view their current stories, reels, photos, videos, and profile. Since you are not logged in as a user when using this service, Instagram doesn't know that the user in question has you blocked. You are free to view it anonymously.
You might wish to view Instagram videos and content without detection in order to protect your own privacy or because you are checking up on your children, spouse, or loved ones out of curiosity or fear for their safety or fidelity. Another reason people might choose to view content anonymously is to avoid social pressure. Sometimes people feel judged by their interests or the types of profiles they seek out.
Another common reason for anonymous viewing is business data and research on your competition or on your typical customer bases. You can pick up on trends without having to follow lots of accounts. Businesses use social listening to gather intelligence on what their customer base truly wants or needs help with. They might also want to spy on their competition to get a feel for their marketing strategy and use that information to get a competitive advantage.
There are many legal reasons someone might want to protect their online activity from public view.
If all this talk about viewing public photos and videos on Instagram has you a little worried about your own content, there are some ways to protect your information online. If you have a business account that you are trying to go to, of course, you will want to keep that profile public and easy to access. Your private account, however, could be protected if you share sensitive information like photos of your children. If you do want to stay protected from lurkers on Instagram, follow these steps.
#1. Set your account to private. This basic step ensures your content remains private, and even third-party apps and services will not be able to view it. If you only need this protection for a limited time, you can always change the settings back to public later.
#2. Be careful who you friend online. When your account is private, you can follow any public account you want, but people that want to follow you will have to ask your permission. If your privacy is important to you, be diligent about checking in with those you are accepting as a follower. From time to time, review your follower list and remove accounts that seem unsafe to you.
#3. Control your tagged photos. You can enable an option to manually approve tags so that your photos are not tagged by public accounts, which can then be seen or found by others.
#4. Avoid sharing your location in posts and stories. You can turn off location-sharing settings on Instagram.
#5. Finally, make sure that your password is hard to crack. Use a password generator, or at least make sure you don't make the password too simple or too personal (for example, using your pet's or children's names). You can also turn on two-factor identification for Instagram, which will make it much harder for your account to be hacked.
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