How to Permanently Delete Your Instagram Account (2020 Guide)

Instagram is full of rich celebrities, influencers, and models who share pictures and videos with the whole world. But sometimes social media apps can be addicting and downright depressing if you are spending too much time scrolling upon pictures and more pictures.

Whether you have decided to take a break from social media or need to delete a fake profile, it is better to follow the right way to delete an Instagram account. If you want to know how to delete your Instagram account without losing any privacy data, follow the steps below.

Go to the “Delete your Account” page.
Choose an option from the drop-down menu.
Select “Permanently delete my account.”

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Because Your Privacy Matters

Are you deleting your account because of online privacy or just want to take a break from social media? You are not alone. Some Instagram users, realizing their lives may not be as glamorous as the people they compare themselves to, get stressed out when browsing photos of teenagers in Ferraris, while others want to ensure no one is accessing their private information.

On the other hand, you may be aware of how social media apps like Instagram and Facebook can access your data, or in simpler words, our private lives. Search for words like “off-Facebook activity dangers” or “Cambridge Analytica Scandal” on the Internet to know more about how companies use our private data to their advantage.

To ensure Instagram is not selling your private data, learn how to delete your account the right way.

IMPORTANT!

Some Points are needed to be considered before you proceed to delete or deactivate your Instagram account.

If you have decided to take this temporary measure (deactivate your Instagram account temporarily), your photos profile, comments, and likes will be hidden entirely but when you log back, all the activity will be restored itself.

If you have decided to take the permanent measure (to permanently delete your account forever), your photos profile, comments, and likes will go like as they never were there. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to recover.

Try backing up your whole data uploaded on Instagram before saying bye forever and download the whole Instagram activity by following the link.

Most importantly if you decide to re-register your account again, your username will be gone and chances are that someone would have taken that username.

Also, Instagram can’t reactivate deleted accounts so think twice before deleting it forever.

Get an overview of Instagram’s privacy policy from here.

How to deactivate Instagram Account temporarily?

You may not want to disable your Instagram account permanently for now. If so, you can delete your Instagram account temporarily by following these steps:

Next, click “Edit Profile.”

Click on“Temporarily disable my account” at the bottom.

Select reason for disabling your account from the drop-down menu next to "Why are you disabling your account".

Re-enter your password to confirm and procced to disable your account.

re-enter your password to confirm and proceed to disable your account

Click "Temporarily Disable Account".

finally click on Temporarily disable my Instagram account

How to delete your Account permanently on phone or iPhone?

Access the “Delete Your Account Page” on your desktop. page.
Note: You can’t delete your Instagram account within Instagram application.
After visiting, log into your account if you are not already logged in.
Next to “Why are you deleting your account”, select the reason why you wish to delete your Instagram account from the options in the “drop-down menu”.
Re-enter your Instagram password.
Finally click on “Permanently delete my account”.

How to backup all the data uploaded on Instagram account:

Log in to your Instagram account and go to your profile.
Click on the hamburger icon and navigate to settings.
Click "Data Download" it will ask for your email address and password. You can also click here to view data download page.
Once done, your data will be sent to your email address within 24 hours.

Why Would You Delete Your Instagram Account?

With more than 1 billion monthly users, Instagram has become a platform for all kinds of people. From food bloggers to travel influencers, Instagram hosts individuals and groups from all parts of the globe. The platform has allowed users to share daily happenings along with hashtags to create a trend and gain popularity quickly.

A platform of this magnitude that hosts hundreds of millions of daily active users attracts not only average internet users who wish to share their daily activities but individuals with illicit intentions. Cybercriminals are always looking for hot zones that attract several people to target a huge audience easily.

Apps like Instagram attract cybercriminals who are eagerly looking for ways to target individuals. It could be via cyberstalking, cyberbullying, or hacking into a user’s account. Whatever reason it may be, the costs of such an action can have both monetary and emotional loss to the user.

Many people are now deleting Instagram as the whole concept of taking an interesting picture, then taking forever to edit it, forever to think of a nice caption, and then finally post it after contemplating for hours to get a few likes doesn’t make sense anymore.

That’s not it. Many people are getting tired of seeing perfection 24/7 on the app while the reality on the ground is way different. When you see perfection on a digital screen and compare it to your daily life, it just makes you sick as normal day-to-day life isn’t sophisticated. When most people post their very best and heightened moments, it just isn’t real and instead fake.

More people are also deleting the app as they are starting to conform in a way where you do what everyone else is doing and act as expected from you. It’s easy to understand the extent of social media apps and their grasp on us by simply heading outside to a public place. You’ll notice people on their phones choosing to miss out on incredible moments and experiences.

You don’t have to head far to see the immense reliance people have created around social media apps. For some, posting a picture of their lunch before they start eating has become a norm. For others, sharing their morning face daily and update followers about their whereabouts is a common thing.

Not realizing what immense sharing can have an impact on you psychologically, Instagram users excessively share about their daily happenings and yet complain about feeling alone and unhappy. Studies prove that teenagers are the most affected by the growing involvement of social media apps in our lives.

At the same time, as cyberattacks increase on a monthly basis with more victims each time, it only makes sense that you would want to disassociate yourself from an app that can cause you so much harm.

Final Words
Is Instagram safe?

Update: It was reported in March 2019, that Facebook employees had access to passwords of 600 million Instagram users. An internal investigation was carried out by the company which concluded that passwords stored were not misused or leaked to any third party. However, it is an alarming sign for users who are concerned about their internet privacy and online freedom.

Who’s to say your account details weren’t or can’t be misused? Security experts have advised all users to take precautionary measures before it’s too late!

Apparently, Instagram is safe for use. However, the platform compromises your privacy and security making you vulnerable to external threats by hackers and cybercriminals. For e.g. a hacker can learn a lot more about you by checking out your pictures on Instagram. They can use this information to harm you and hack into your accounts or devices.

Cyberstalkers also use this information to monitor your daily activities and gather enough information so they can blackmail you or harm you in any manner.

It is advised to use a VPN whenever surf online, it not only helps you to remain anonymous but also secure you from hackers to track your activities online.

Secure yourself now Because your Privacy Matters

Want to reclaim your online privacy? You might want to check below how to delete your account guides of social media platforms: