How to Secure Your Instagram Account: Privacy, Safety & Deletion Guide

Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users and is one of the most popular platforms for sharing photos, videos, and stories. It is also a common target for scams, impersonation, and phishing attacks. This guide covers everything from securing your account to permanently deleting it.

Set a Strong Password

Your Instagram password should be unique and not shared with any other account, especially your email or Facebook.

1. Open Instagram and go to Settings > Accounts Center > Password and Security > Change Password
2. Choose a password at least 12 characters long
3. Include uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
4. Do not use your name, birthday, or common words

Use our Password Generator to create a strong, random password.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

This is the most important security step. With 2FA enabled, anyone trying to log into your account needs both your password and a verification code.

1. Go to Settings > Accounts Center > Password and Security > Two-Factor Authentication
2. Select your Instagram account
3. Choose your method:
   • Authentication app (recommended) — Google Authenticator, Authy, or similar
   • Text message (SMS) — your phone receives a code via text
   • WhatsApp — receive codes via WhatsApp
4. Follow the setup instructions
5. Save the backup codes Instagram provides in a secure location

Review Login Activity

Check where your account is currently logged in and remove any sessions you do not recognize.

1. Go to Settings > Accounts Center > Password and Security > Where You're Logged In
2. Review every device and location
3. Tap any session you do not recognize and select Log Out
4. If you see suspicious activity, change your password immediately

Lock Down Your Privacy Settings

Switch to a Private Account

1. Go to Settings > Account Privacy
2. Turn on Private Account
3. Only approved followers will see your posts, stories, and Reels

Control Your Story Sharing

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Story
2. Turn off Allow Sharing if you do not want people forwarding your stories
3. Use Close Friends to share sensitive stories with a smaller audience
4. Turn off Allow Sharing to Facebook if you do not want stories cross-posted

Hide Your Activity Status

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Activity Status
2. Turn off Show Activity Status so others cannot see when you were last online

Manage Sensitive Content

1. Go to Settings > Content Preferences > Sensitive Content Control
2. Choose Less to reduce exposure to sensitive content in Explore and Reels

Control Who Can Interact With You

Comments

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Comments
2. Turn on Manual Filter and add words you want blocked from your comments
3. Choose who can comment: Everyone, People You Follow, or Followers

Messages

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Messages
2. Under "Other people on Instagram," choose Don't Receive Requests to block messages from strangers
3. Turn off Allow Message Requests in group chats from strangers

Tags and Mentions

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Tags
2. Set "Allow Tags From" to People You Follow or No One
3. Turn on Manually Approve Tags before they appear on your profile
4. Go to Privacy > Mentions and set to People You Follow or No One

Remove Connected Apps

1. Go to Settings > Security > Apps and Websites
2. Review all apps under Active
3. Remove any app you do not use or recognize by tapping Remove
4. Check Expired and Removed tabs to review past access

Download Your Instagram Data

Before disabling or deleting your account, download everything.

1. Go to Settings > Accounts Center > Your Information and Permissions > Download Your Information
2. Select your Instagram account
3. Choose Complete Copy or select specific data types
4. Pick format: HTML (easy to browse) or JSON (machine-readable)
5. Click Request a Download
6. Instagram will email you a link when the file is ready (this may take up to 48 hours)
7. Download and save the file to a safe location

How to Temporarily Disable Your Account

Disabling hides your profile, photos, comments, and likes until you log back in. Your data is preserved.

1. Log in to Instagram on a web browser (instagram.com) — this cannot be done from the app
2. Go to your profile and click Edit Profile
3. Scroll down and click Temporarily disable my account
4. Select a reason from the dropdown menu
5. Re-enter your password and click Temporarily Disable Account

To reactivate, simply log back in through the app or website.

How to Permanently Delete Your Instagram Account

Deletion removes your profile, photos, videos, comments, likes, and followers permanently.

Before you delete:

• Download your data (see above)
• Remove Instagram Login from any apps that use it
• Save any photos or videos you want to keep
• Transfer ownership of any business pages

To delete:

1. Visit Instagram's account deletion page: instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/
2. Log in if prompted
3. Select a reason for leaving
4. Re-enter your password
5. Click Delete [username]

Instagram provides a 30-day grace period. If you log in during those 30 days, the deletion is cancelled. After 30 days, your account and data are permanently removed, though full deletion from servers can take up to 90 days.

To check if your personal data is still circulating online after leaving Instagram, use our GCR Data Shield to scan 500+ data broker sites. Use our AI Scam Checker to verify any suspicious messages you receive.