Instagram

An extensive new report from Business Insider today details how the marketing startup Hyp3r was able to use Instagram loopholes to garner an incredible amount of information about users. Hyp3r took advantage of “a combination of configuration errors and lax oversight by Instagram” to build “detailed profiles of people’s movements and interests.”

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Earlier this year, Instagram announced that it was testing a design shift that would hide the number of likes on posts. Now, the company is expanding that design change to additional countries.

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A few weeks ago, I got asked by a local church to talk to their parents about strategies to help monitor their kids’ social media use. This topic is one I get asked about a lot, and I know that a lot of parents are struggling with it. When they brought me up there, they were looking for a silver bullet of an app, service, or method to use to help make sure their kids don’t get into trouble on social media. I started the talk with a simple statement: your kids don’t need social media accounts and you don’t either.

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A TikTok-like algorithm and a streamlined interface aren’t the only changes coming to IGTV. Instagram announced today that its long-form video feature is forgoing its vertical-only format restriction.

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Back in December of 2017, Instagram launched a standalone app called Direct, focused on its messaging and story features. Just over a year later, however, the Facebook-owned service has announced that it is shuttering the application.

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Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and other leaders at the company took the stage at the F8 developer conference today to talk about where the platform is headed. We also got a look at the major new Facebook design headed for iOS and desktop that brings a brand new UI and logo, as well as a glimpse at new features and changes for Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

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Lens is a new Instagram app for Apple Watch that includes nearly every feature of the photo sharing service — all without the iPhone. The unofficial client is much more capable than Instagram’s outdated and discontinued app for the watch.

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Instagram is seemingly considering a major shift in functionality. According to code found within the Instagram app, the company has considered hiding the number of likes a post gets. Instead, the interface focuses on who liked the image.

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Last month, Facebook revealed that millions of Instagram and Facebook passwords were stored in plaintext and were accessible by engineers. Now, the company has issued an update on the situation, revealing that the situation is worse than it originally stated.

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Update: Facebook has confirmed to us that it is testing ways to improve the messaging experience but has no further details to share at this stage.

Facebook has taken the next step in its plans to unify its Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram messaging apps into a single, unified messaging service. The result would be something likely to rival iMessage as an ultra-convenient one-stop messaging option …

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Uh-oh, says Facebook, it turns out millions of user passcodes were stored in plaint text on the social network’s servers. Facebook disclosed the mistake that risked exposing the passwords of Facebook and Instagram users in a new blog post called Keeping Passwords Secure — presumably the irony is not intentional.

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US Instagram users can now buy products from more than 20 major brands from inside the app. The feature is known as Instagram Checkout.

Today, we’re introducing Checkout on Instagram. When you find a product you love, you can now buy it without leaving the app …

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