Instagram prototypes handing your location history to Facebook

This will surely exacerbate fears that Facebook will explode even more Instagram now that its founders have resigned. Instagram has been seen as a prototype of a new privacy setting that would allow you to share your location history with Facebook. That means that your exact GPS coordinates compiled by Instagram, even when you're not using the application, will help Facebook guide you with ads and recommend relevant content. What is worrying, the configuration to share the location history was set to On in the prototype. Geotagged data would appear to users in the Activity Log of their Facebook profile, which includes spooky daily maps of the places they have been.

This combination of data could annoy users who want to limit the monitoring of their lives on Facebook. With Facebook installing its former vice president of News Feed and Mark Zuckerberg's close friend, Adam Mosseri, as Instagram's boss, some critics have worried that Facebook will try to squeeze more value out of Instagram. Tat includes directing referral traffic to the main application through spam notifications, inserting additional ads or getting more data. Facebook was sued for breaking its promise to European regulators that it would not mix WhatsApp and Facebook data, which would result in a $ 122 million fine.

A Facebook spokesperson tells TechCrunch that " To confirm, we have not introduced any updates to our location settings. As you know, we often work on ideas that may evolve over time or, ultimately, not be tested or published. Instagram does not currently store location history; we will keep people updated with any changes to our location settings in the future. " That effectively confirms that sharing location history is something that Instagram has done a prototype, and is considering launching but has not done yet.

Screenshots are courtesy of the mobile researcher and frequent TipCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong . His previous findings, such as the Instagram Video Calling prototypes and Music Stickers, have generated "no comments" on Instagram, but then officially launched in the following months. That gives credibility to the idea that Instagram takes placement history seriously.

Located in the Privacy and Security settings, the Location History option allows Facebook products, including Instagram and Messenger, to build and use a history of accurate locations received through Location Services on their device. "

A "More information" button provides additional information (the emphasis is mine):

"Location history is a setting that allows Facebook to create a history of precise locations received through the Location services on your device. When Location History is activated, Facebook will periodically add your current accurate location to your Location History even if you leave the app. You can deactivate Location History at any time in the location. Location settings in the app When location history is turned off, Facebook will stop adding new information to your location history that you can see in your location settings. Facebook may still receive your most recent accurate location so you can, for example, publish content tagged with your location. Location history It helps you explore what is around you, get more relevant ads and improve Facebook. Location history must be enabled for any location function to work on Facebook, including Wi-Fi search and close friends. "

As part of an agreement with the FTC in 2011 for privacy violations, Facebook agreed that " Retroactive material changes in the audience that can view information that users have previously shared on Facebook "should now be optional But since the location history is never visible to other users and only deals with the data Facebook sees, it is exempt from that agreement and could be added silently. It is possible that most users never deepen enough in their privacy settings to disable the exclusion feature.

Delivering the exact history of where Instagram users were could help Facebook identify them with local ads across their application family. If users are found to visit certain businesses, countries, neighborhoods or schools, Facebook could use that data to infer what products they could buy and promote. It could even show ads for restaurants or stores near where users spend their days. Just yesterday, we reported that Facebook was testing a redesign of its Close Friends feature that replaces the list view of friends' locations with a map. Getting the location history of Instagram could help keep that map updated.

Sources tell TechCrunch that Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger left the company after growing tensions with Zuckerberg over the decrease in the autonomy of their application within the Facebook corporation . Systrom apparently confronted Zuckerberg about how Instagram was supposed to contribute to Facebook's success, especially when younger users began to leave the older social network for the newer visual media application. Facebook is under pressure to maintain revenue growth even though it is running out of news ad inventory and users switch to stories advertisers are still acclimatizing to. Facebook competes heatedly with Google for the local advertising of the last mile and will take advantage of any advantage you can get.

Instagram has served as a life raft for the Facebook brand this year in the midst of an avalanche of scandals including false news, interference in elections, social events. addiction to the media, and more recently, a security breach that gave hackers access tokens for 50 million users who could have allowed them to take over their accounts. A survey of 1,153 adults in the US UU Held in March 2018, it found that 57 percent of them did not know that Instagram was owned by Facebook. But if Facebook treats Instagram as a source of data and traffic that can strip me, the negative perceptions associated with the parent could spread over the child.

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