Hello, friends! This post is a little bit different than my normal crafty post or recipe. So bear with me! ;) A few weeks ago I had a huge scare when one of my friends sent me a facebook message letting me know that she had gotten a notification that I had joined Instagram (odd!), & she said the account was under my 15 year old daughter’s Instagram handle (even stranger!). What made it even worse (and gave me that awful sinking feeling!) was that this fake account was posting inappropriate pictures. So not good! So of course, my mama bear instincts took over! I changed passwords, double checked log in attempts, checked my daughter’s real instagram account, double checked that it was private, searched for the fake one (It had been deleted!), check my accounts to see if anyone had been trying to hack in, & I started poking around my settings in Instagram. Annnnd I couldn’t believe what I found ~ Instagram had been telling everyone exactly where I lived! So let me show you what I figured out, & how you can prevent this from happening to you!
If your account is set to private then this post probably doesn’t apply to you. Buuuuut if you are a blogger like me or have a public Instagram account please listen up! This information only applies to an iPad mini (or iPad). I haven’t had any trouble with my phone tagging locations on its own. I bought our iPad mini a few years ago just so I could get on Instagram. #bloggerlife Now I use it primarily for my Instagram postings at our house. I was always careful not to tag the location when I was at home (of course!). Buuuuut unbeknownst to me my iPad was doing that for me. Let me show you how! On your profile page you’ll notice the little geotag button. So I clicked on it.
After I clicked I found out that over 300 pictures where tagged right to my house! I was giving whoever looked at my Instagram account a map right to our front door. So scary! FYI >>>> This is NOT a map to our house or anywhere close! haha! I took the kiddos to my alma mater a few months ago. Anyone else a Lumberjack? ;)
So let me show you how to stop this from happening. On your iPad go to settings. Click privacy, then location services.
Next click on Instagram. If you notice now I am super vigilant….all my apps are set to never ~ not even the maps are off the hook. ha!
When I checked this setting a few weeks ago the while using the app was checked. So every time I posted to Instagram it was tagging my location whether or not I manually tagged it or not. Now mine is set to never. So I don’t have to worry! Whew!
If you do have a gazillion pictures tagged to your home (like I did!), it’s pretty easy to untag them & get them off your map. After clicking on your geotag button & bringing up your map, click edit.
Select the pictures you want to delete, & then click done.
It will ask you if you would like to remove the geotag. Click confirm.
Poof! It’s gone! Now you can rest easy! ;)
I’m still pretty shaken from this whole experience. I realize that I let my guard down, and I wasn’t as vigilant as I should of been. I had never even checked the geotag button to see if any photos where on my map. I never manually tagged my location, so I thought I was good. I had also been tagging my older three kiddos in Instagram photos. I’m assuming that’s how the impostor got my daughter’s Instagram handle. I have created another Instagram account that I will keep private for family & friends. From now on I will use that account to tag my kiddos & share photos of my family. My @gingersnapcraft account will be more focused on the blog side of things. I’m sure I’ll share cute pictures of my kiddos here & there but not near as much as I have been. I love that you can now toggle between Instagram accounts. This will make it so much easier to manage two accounts! You can see how over at Over the Big Moon. Just click the picture below to see how easy it is to do! :)
If you are a blogger (or have a public Instagram account) please take a second to double check your settings & please click on that geotag button to make sure you are good. I know you want to keep your family as safe as I do mine! Let me know if you have any internet safety tips to share in the comments below. :)
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This post was created for Ginger Snap Crafts by Ginger Bowie.
