By default, anyone can see your profile and posts on Instagram. You can make your account private so that only followers you approve can see what you share. If your account is set to private, only your approved followers will see your photos or videos on hashtag or location pages.
Instagram app for Android and iPhone:
- Tap
or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap
in the top right, then tap
Settings.
- Tap Privacy, then tap Account Privacy.
- Tap next to Private Account to make your account private.
Instagram.com from a computer:
- Click your profile picture in the top right corner, then click
- Click Privacy and Security.
- Below Account Privacy, click to check the box next to Private Account.
Instagram.com from a mobile browser:
- Tap your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap
- Tap Privacy and Security.
- Below Account Privacy, tap to check the box next to Private Account.
Things to keep in mind about private accounts:
- Private posts you share to social networks may be visible to the public depending on your privacy settings for those networks. For example, a post you share to Twitter that was set to private on Instagram may be visible to the people who can see your Twitter posts.
- Once you make your account private, people will have to send you a follow request to see your posts, your followers list or your following list.
- Follow requests appear in
Activity, where you can approve or ignore them.
- If someone was already following you before you set your posts to private and you don't want them to see your posts, you can block them.
- People can send a photo or video directly to you even if they’re not following you.
