Are you on Instagram? It's one of the top social media platforms for sharing photos and video content, but personally, I love to use it to keep up with friends, family, and even my favorite celebrities.

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But did you know that when you create an Instagram account, the default settings mean your account is public? That means anyone in the world (whether they have an Instagram account or not) can find and access your account, and see any photos you've posted, and who you're following.  If your account is public, I’ve shown you on CyberGuy.com how hackers can craft an attack from your social media profile in a frightening invasive way. 

Change your Instagram privacy settings today to make your account safer.

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Change your Instagram Privacy settings

How to make your Instagram private

The main setting you're going to want to adjust is the public/private setting. As I mentioned, Instagram's default setting is to allow your account to be public to anyone.  Follow these steps to change your account to private.

1. Once you've opened the Instagram app, you'll want to head to your own profile. You can do that by tapping your profile picture in the bottom right corner, like this:

Change your privacy settings on Instagram. (Kurt Knutsson for Fox News Digital)

2. Then head to your settings, which you can find by tapping the three horizontal lines in the top right.

3. Click Settings and then go to Privacy.

4. At the top of the Privacy screen, you'll see where you can make your account private. Make sure you toggle this on, and select Switch to private.

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Now that your account is private, you'll have to accept followers before they're allowed to see your profile. To check follower requests, head to the home screen by tapping here:

Change your privacy settings on Instagram. (Kurt Knutsson for Fox News Digital)

On the top right, press the heart icon, which will bring you to your activity. The top line of your activity is where your Follow requests will be displayed. If anyone requests to follow your account, you'll head here and have the choice to approve or ignore the request. They won't be notified if you ignore the request, but they'll be able to request to follow you again.

More privacy settings to adjust

If you're on other social media platforms, be sure to search "privacy" at CyberGuy.com to learn how to tweak privacy settings in your favor for iPhone, Android, Facebook, Google, Twitter and China-owned TikTok.

Follow these steps to make sure your Instagram photos are private. (REUTERS/Thomas White, File)

Learn more ways to keep your devices by simply searching "privacy" at CyberGuy.com and signing up for the CyberGuy Report Newsletter.

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