Overall Ratings
Username offensive username could be used
Password Other than the password having to be 8 characters long there are no complexity requirements so you can enter a very weak password such as Pa55w0rd! and Instagram will accept that as a password. This means that Instagram accounts can be very susceptible to hacking especially if two factor authentication is not enabled on the account.
Multi Factor Authentication Instagram supports two factor authentication however, as with most apps, it is not enabled by default when it absolutely should be. It can be enabled in the app and it should be turned on as soon as you setup your account.
Although Instagram does not feature a live chat, you can message someone on Instagram through the platform’s direct messaging feature, which lets you reach out to anyone with an Instagram account. Users don’t need to follow you, nor do you need to follow them to message each other on Instagram. This can lead to Grooming, online bullying and other security risks.
Instagram access includes location, contacts, photos, microphone, camera and notifications
Instagram Locations allow you to add a precise geotagged location to your Instagram posts. This location can be either geographic, for instance, ‘London’, or the location of an actual business, like ‘Peggy Porschen Bakery’.
Instagram users will be able to see this location displayed at the top of your post as well as click on it to see more posts which have been tagged in that same location.
If you want to get technical, Instagram Locations are made possible with geotagging, which is enabled if you allow Instagram permission to collect the latitude and longitude of your current location with your photo. This information is collected by the GPS device in your phone or tablet.
Instagram Live is a feature that works within Instagram Stories and allows users to broadcast live videos to other users on the platform.
Instagram Stories are shown at the top of the feed. Any accounts that are currently live will include the “Live” icon.
The age limit stated by Snapchat to use the app is 13 years although no real checks to verify someone’s age are made when signing up.
The age rating on Google play to download the app is Teen, while iTunes it is 12+
Although the age limit of Instagram is 13 years old in its terms of services and users need to provide their birth date to create an Instagram account, there is no age verification. That is to say, users under 13, like 12, 11, 10, and even 9 years old, can still get access to Instagram by providing a fake date of birth.
The most recent Instagram data breach happened in January 2021, when a database of account information at the company SocialArks was exposed due to a misconfigured database. SocialArks had obtained this information by scraping user profiles on Instagram and other social media services.
As far as we know, there have been no known Instagram data breaches so far in 2022