Location-Sharing Feature Raises Concerns About Privacy and Social Pressures

Instagram’s new location-sharing feature, launched to great fanfare, has turned out to be a digital ghost town. Despite 170 million users gaining access to the feature, the Map is eerily empty, with users sharing their exact, real-time location with each other. But is this a voluntary choice, or are users unwittingly broadcasting their whereabouts?

For many, the idea of sharing their location on Instagram is unsettling, given the platform’s history of mishandling user data. In recent years, Meta, the company that owns Instagram, has faced numerous fines and lawsuits for its handling of user data. Despite promises to prioritize user privacy, the company’s actions have raised concerns about the potential for misuse.

The feature, which allows users to share their location with all of their connections or a handpicked group, has been met with confusion and frustration. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has been playing damage control on Threads, the company’s answer to X, as users express their concerns about the feature.

But what does it feel like to expose your location to every single one of your friends on Instagram? Thomas Germain, a senior technology journalist, decided to find out. He tweaked his privacy controls and ventured into the wilds of the Map, only to find himself almost completely alone. His location was visible to exactly one other person, an old colleague from the record store he used to work at.

“I felt, for a second, a strange pang of vulnerability,” Germain said. “It was even stranger to realise that I was almost completely alone.”

But Germain’s experience is not unique. Many users are expressing concerns about the feature, citing issues with privacy and social pressures. Hannah Law, a 26-year-old Instagram user, says that the feature seems based on Snapchat’s Map, but Snapchat feels geared for more guarded personal connection.

“I’m much more likely to get stalked by an Instagram follower than a Snapchat friend,” Law said.

Experts are warning about the potential risks of location-sharing features like Instagram’s Map. A study from the child advocacy group Common Sense Media found that 45% of adolescent girls said location sharing had a “mostly negative” effect on them.

“We’re not an organisation that is explicitly anti-social media, because kids tell us there’s a variety of benefits,” says Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media. “But kids have told us locating sharing creates social pressures about where they go, fear of missing out and worries about whether their friends are hanging out without them.”

It’s not just children who face these issues. Awkward questions crop up when someone doesn’t get a party invitation. A jealous ex shows up at the bar. An unsettling friend pays a little too much attention to what you’re up to. And when problems arise, revoking someone’s access to your location may come with social consequences.

“The first thing we’d say is turn it off,” Torney says. “The safety concerns are a real issue, and there’s a real potential for misuse.”

Location information is probably the most sensitive type of data that’s regularly siphoned out of your phone. Your daily movements can reveal where you live, where you work, who you spend time with, even where your children go to school. Go to a specialist’s clinic, and it can expose your medical conditions. Attend a protest, and it documents your political beliefs. Visit a gay bar, and your location data carries implications about your sexuality.

As Germain rode the subway, his little dot on the Map seemed to be a symbol of the irony of it all. He had written about the importance of protecting user privacy, but here he was, sharing his exact location with the world.

“It made me nervous,” his ex-girlfriend messaged him. “Be safe.”

Germain turned off the feature, but the experience left him with a sense of unease. Is Instagram’s Map a digital ghost town, or a harbinger of a more sinister future? Only time will tell.