Instagram sending user’s location history data to Facebook

Given that Instagram’s founders have resigned, the transfer of historical data on location will undoubtedly exacerbate public concerns about Facebook’s further use of Instagram. Some people have found that Instagram is designing a privacy setting that will allow it to share historical location data of users with Facebook.

This means that even if you are not using Facebook, the accurate GPS coordinates collected by Instagram will help Facebook advertise and recommend relevant content. The worrying thing is that the location history sharing settings are enabled by default in the design prototype. Users can see the geographical location of these landmarks in their Facebook activity log, including maps of places you have been to every day.

This data integration can be unsettling for users who want to limit Facebook’s ability to monitor their lives. After Facebook appointed Mark Zuckerberg’s close friend and former News Feed senior vice president Adam Moseley to take over the role of Instagram president, some critics worry that Facebook will try to extract more value from Instagram. This includes spamming notifications for their main app to drive recommended traffic, inserting additional ads, or extracting more data. Facebook has previously been sued for violating its commitment to European regulators, and the company had promised not to integrate WhatsApp and Facebook data, which ultimately led to a $122 million fine.

A Facebook spokesperson said in an interview with TechCrunch, “There is one thing to make clear, we have not updated the location settings. As you know, we often do some research and development based on ideas. Over time, these ideas may be further developed or It will not be tested or launched in the end. Instagram does not currently store historical data, and we will tell you if there are any changes in future location settings.” These words confirm that Instagram has designed a prototype of location history data sharing and is considering whether to launch it (but not yet available).

Providing accurate location data where Instagram users have been able to help Facebook deliver local ads across multiple apps. If the company learns that users have gone to some businesses, countries, communities, or schools, Facebook can use the data to infer the products they want to buy and promote.

It can even show ads for restaurants or stores near the user’s location. Just yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook redesigned the Nearby Friends feature, and friends’ location information no longer appears as a list, but as a map. Extracting location history data from Instagram can help Facebook update nearby friend’s location maps.

According to people familiar with the matter, as Zuckerberg gradually reduced the autonomy of Instagram, the relationship between the two sides became more and tenser, and then Instagram founders Kevin Strom and Mike Craig left the company. Regarding how Instagram should promote Facebook’s success, Strom apparently clashes with Zuckerberg, especially as young (female) users no longer use the previous social networks and switch to newer visual media applications. Despite the fact that the News Feed ad inventory has been used up and users are starting to adopt Stories, which advertisers are still adapting, Facebook is still under pressure from revenue growth. Facebook and Google are engaged in fierce advertising competition and will do everything they can to take advantage of all of their strengths.

This year, with the news of false news, interference in elections, social media addiction, and security breaches, Instagram has become a life-saving shackle for the Facebook brand. In March 2018, in a survey of 1,153 American adults, the results showed that 57% did not know that Instagram is owned by Facebook. But if Facebook treats Instagram as a source of data and traffic and deprives it, then parents’ negative perceptions of Facebook may affect children.

Source: Sina technology