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Instagram tips: How to go private and shield your profile from public view

Want to keep your social life private on Instagram? Here's how to switch to a private Instagram profile in mere seconds.

Switching to a private Instagram account can help you keep your social life limited to only those you know. (Express Photo)

With more than a billion users worldwide, Instagram has emerged as one of the most popular social media platforms to keep in touch with family and friends. The Meta-owned platform not only lets you quickly share memes, videos, posts, stories and other things with your favourite people but is also a good way to see what other people are up to.

Instagram is great for sharing your journey with the world, but sometimes you might want to share a post or image with a limited group of people. If you are thinking of keeping your social life more private or just don’t want random strangers on the internet to see what you are up to, keeping your Instagram account private can be a good way to keep prying those eyes out of your life.

When your Instagram account is public, the company says that your profile and posts can be viewed by anyone, even if they don’t have an Instagram account. But when you make it private, only your followers, who are the people you have approved will be able to see the content you post. But doing this won’t hide information like your profile picture and username, as it will be available publicly.

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Here’s how to keep your Instagram account safe from public view. (Express Photo)

How to make an Instagram account private?

1. Open Instagram on your phone or browser and tap on your profile picture from the bottom bar.

2. Now, click on the three horizontal lines that appear on the top right and scroll down a bit to find a section named ‘Who can see your content’.

3. Here, you will see an option named ‘Account privacy’. Tap on it to open a new window, where you will see a toggle named ‘Private account’. Turn it on and you are good to go.

Once you make your account private, people who aren’t following you on Instagram will be able to open your profile page but won’t be able to see your posts. However, the number of posts and followers are still visible.

Anurag Chawake

Anurag Chawake is a Senior Sub-Editor at indianexpress.com. His fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows 98. Since then, he has been tinkering with various operating systems, mobile phones, and other things. Anurag usually writes on a wide range of topics including Android, gaming, and PC hardware among other things related to consumer tech. His Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn user name is antechx. ... Read More

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