With data-sharing becoming an increasingly thorny issue among social media users, Instagram is introducing new in-app features to help users better control the data they share with third-parties through the platform. In an official blog post, the company said that the feature will now offer more granular control over who gets access to what data data through Instagram.
Users will be able to turn off data-sharing with third parties by going over to Settings > Security > Apps and Websites. Once there, users will have the option to remove any third-party services they no longer want connected to their Instagram account. “When you remove a third-party service, they will no longer have access to new data on your account”, said the company.
Instagram says the updates will be rolling out gradually over the next six months, but my colleague, Akshay, already seems to have got it on his iPhone, as can be seen from the screenshots below.
According to the company, users share Instagram data with third-parties when they link their account with other apps to import or export photos. When Instagram users grant access to third-party apps, it also shares additional information, such as username, location, etc. Now, with the rollout of the new feature, it will be easier for people to manage all third-party services they connect to their Instagram account.
Meanwhile, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform is also introducing an updated authorization screen that lists all the information the third party is requesting to access. Users will have the option to either cancel or authorize this access directly from the authorization screen, as can be seen from the featured image at the top.
