A new feature on Instagram that users share their real -time physical space with others on the app, include the amount of data for users and privacy experts related to the amount of potential safety risks.
Called Instagram Map, the new feature was introduced on Thursday as part of the app update. On its blog, the company says the location-sharing device “makes it easy for you and your friends to stay in contact through the material you are enjoying on Instagram.”
Instagram said, “You can choose to share your last active place with friends you have chosen, and you can close it anytime,” Instagram said blog post Declaration of new facility. “You can also open a map to see your friends and are posting from the favorite creator Cool Spot. No matter how you use the map, you and your friends have a new, light way to join each other.”
“Close by default”
In a statement shared with the CBS Manivatch on Friday, Meta, the original company of the Instagram, emphasized that the Instagram Maps is not automatically active on updating the Maps app and users have to choose a place-sharing facility to make their whereabouts visible to others.
Instagram 
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement to CBS Manivatch, “Instagram map is closed by default, and your live location is never shared until you turn it on. If you do, only those people who return – or a private, custom list you can choose – can see your location,” a spokes spokes that the spokesperson called CBS Manivach.
Users can also choose to not share their locations when they are in special places, or with special people.
Nevertheless, privacy experts say that social media users are not always aware of how much information they are sharing with an app or its users, even if they have the ability to limit.
“These location features are rolled out on social media, it fulfills the notion that as long as you give users the ability to togue them and they will find out how they really want to do it,” Douglas Zitco, an app Safety Expert and Associate Professor of Innovation and Technology of the University of Michigan Flint. “But the average user does not always know about their privacy settings and if they match their preferences.”
When according to the Instagram blog, the Instagram map feature is turned on, any content will appear on the map of the app for 24 hours, including a user post tag, post or story. While the facility continues, the user’s location is updated whenever they open the app or return to it. The facility can be discontinued at any time.
Discussing the feature in the Instagram post, the head of the Instagram, Adam Moseri, explains how he himself uses the map. “Personally, I use the map to share what I am doing with my closest friends, and I carefully cure that list,” he said.
User confusion on whether the facility is on or closed
On threads, meta microblogging site, many Instagram account holders Claimed Their places were being pinned on the map of friends by default.
MOSSERI said that concerns motivated the company to re -examine how the facility works.
He said, “We are double-checking everything, but so far most people seem confused and assume it, because they can see themselves on the map when they open, other people can also see them,” he said. “We are still examining everything, although to ensure that anyone shares a place without a clear decision to do so, that, by the way, the design requires a dual consent by the design (we ask you to confirm that you want to share).”
How to turn on Instagram Maps
In the top right corner of the app, tap on the messaging function. There you will see a circular world map icon “map” label. If you click on the icon, you will see that you are at the place pinned on a map. Friends who are sharing their places will also appear. Click on the gear icon, choose to share your location with someone, or a custom list of all your friends, or all your friends – those who are followers are also those you are also you are.
Social pressure, privacy and security risk
However, Zytko stated that it could be complicated for social media users to manage privacy settings that allow them to share different types of materials with different groups. “This issue is called ‘reference collapse’,” he said. “Your colleagues see your social media posts, and your friends and family, and there are some materials that you only want to see a few groups, but not others, and the visibility of the material can be difficult to manage.”
Robi Torney, senior director of AI programs in Common Sense Media, recommends entertainment and technology for families, said that location-sharing features may be particularly risky for young app users.
“These features may feel fun and social, but they pose unnecessary risks that teenagers and many adults are not considered necessary,” they told CBS Manivatch.
While parents who monitor their adolescents through controls manufactured in the app can control their children’s location-sharing settings, they still worry about the type of social pressures, such features also highlight the teenager.
Torny said that research in Common Sense Media shows that location-sharing also “creates social pressure where teenagers go and with whom they spend time, and children feel obliged to share the location to show it that they are quiet somewhere.”
Furthermore, when teenagers share their locations, “they are potentially telling strangers where they are in real time,” Torney told CBS Manivatch. “If you are not selective about what you are sharing with your location, it creates opportunities, staring or worse.”
