Post: #1

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but here it goes:

I'm trying to make an instagram account as a way to close girls - the problem is that I don't want it to be seen by anyone I know. The reason is just that I don't really want people from the past or whatever digging into my social life, I intend to put all kinds of different pictures up there and I'd just prefer to keep my insta as private from them as possible. Counterintuitively, I don't want to have to make this account private, because I'd like to amass followers for the social value (just not followers that I know, if that makes any sense). If old friends stumble upon me by accident, fine, but I don't want instagram to automatically suggest me to them.

The problem that I'm facing is that no matter how hard I try, I can't fucking get instagram to stop suggesting people I know - I'm assuming that if it knows to suggest them for me, then it's suggesting me to them as well. I logged out of facebook, uninstalled it, cleared my instagram history, deleted instagram and reinstalled it, made a brand new email account, and denied instagram access to my contacts and facebook every time. I did this twice with two different instagram accounts and it still somehow found friends to add - it's actually creepy.

How is it even getting this information - is it pulling my phone number from the device? Is it because my account names were similar to other ones I used? I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this before and can help me to get around it.

Post: #2

Block them.

Post: #3

Instagram is either going through your contacts and suggesting the mutuals or running facial recognition in your photos. Probably the former. It's possible they have their stored contact lists tied to device IDs, so even if you block access to contacts in a second install, they know at some point an user of your device had a certain contact list and it's reasonable to suggest those contacts again.

Try getting a second phone - a cheap Android phone works just fine - just to run game-related apps. I do this and it makes everything much simpler. If I'm showing something on my phone to a family member or a business client, I don't want them to see my Tinder notifications. Random girls I meet in dating apps don't need to know my real number and pollute my personal Whatsapp. Just keep everything separate. Plus this way you will never have problems with your contact list.

Post: #4

if you're paranoid as I am, sign up for instagram from the web: https://www.instagram.com/ (without installing any app)
don't give an e-mail/phone number that your friends might have in their contacts' list, nor one that is associated with your facebook account (since instagram is owned by facebook).

then try to re-install the app, and login (without giving the app any permissions) and see if it recommends anyone you might know.

if you're still paranoid, download the android emulator, and install instagram on there. the android emulator comes with the android dev IDE.
you can also become an engineer at instagram and disable their matching algorithms for your account. check out https://www.instagram.com/about/jobs/#Data & Analytics

Post: #5

What those guys said.

You can buy an old android phone used on ebay pretty cheap, maybe $100. Yes it's an old phone, but it was the greatest thing in the world a mere 4 years ago. Just use that.

Don't log in anything else in that phone. No gmail, twitter, phone #, anything.

Post: #6

Facebook owns Instagram, FB Messenger and WhatsApp. If you give them access to your contacts, you bet Facebook will know who you are and who to recommend.

Don't give Instagram access to your contacts.

Post: #7

Bluestacks Android emulator also works great, make sure you have an extra 1GB of RAM for it.

Post: #8

I know you don’t want to hear this but just delete all social media.

Instagram is girls favorite app for inflating their egos.

Richard “Dick” Johnson

Post: #9

If someone has made it so he can see the people in his contact list on his phone who uses Instagram, then he still won't be able to see you on there unless you actually have typed in your phone number in settings on Instagram, right?

It won't say that you're connected to Instagram if you're just login in with an account on the app on your phone with that number on, but you actually have to type in what your number is on the app for them to see you, right?

Post: #10

Use a second profile on your phone.

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2865483?hl=en

If you have to confirm an account by phone then don't give the phone number your have in their contact list.