Instagram's ad partner, Hyp3r, denied that it violated any of the social platform's rules on data collection. The former accused its former advertisements partner of wrongfully storing information gathered from Instagram users' activities.
According to Business Insider, Hyp3r not only saved Instagram user stories on its networks but it also kept track of user locations. The San Francisco startup reportedly used the collected data to develop detailed profiles of millions of users on the platform.
Industry experts pointed out that while Hyp3r violated Instagram's data privacy rules, the latter should have been more way of potential violations by its partners in the platform. The Facebook-owned company has since removed Hyp3r from the network.
Analysts further noted that the latest development in data-gathering violations of Instagram users' information is another display of Facebook's increasing struggles in blocking exploitation of its user base's data.
Sources revealed that over 90 percent of the Hyp3r's stored data were derived from Instagram. However, it is unclear how extensive "deep" the total volume of information the company scraped off of the popular platform.
The ads company has since denied violating any of the photo-sharing app's policies. "HYP3R is, and has always been, a company that enables authentic, delightful marketing that is compliant with consumer privacy regulations and social network Terms of Services," CEO, Carlos Garcia, said.
Garcia went on to explain that the company only views information that is otherwise accessible by the general public. Experts said, though, that Hyp3r took advantage of Instagram's lax policies in terms of data security.
Furthermore, Hyp3r scraped Instagram Stories data - a feature that should disappear forever into the black hole of the internet after 24 hours. The clear violation of this policy has rattled social media experts.
As a result of the latest fallout, an Instagram spokesperson told CNBC that the social network developed a product change that is expected to effectively block third-party partners from storing location data of its users.
Previously, the social platform's Location pages allowed for viewing of public accounts visiting places in the Locations pages to just about anyone who asked. Whether an Instagram viewer is logged in or not, the information will be served up.
TechCrunch confirmed that Instagram has since turned off the feature that allows for the Location pages to be viewed. Despite the feature being turned off, privacy activists warned users against companies that scrape off the information they provide.
While public accounts can indeed be viewed by just about anyone who makes a search, privacy advocates reiterated that people never want their information tracked and built up into shadow profiles for the purpose of targeted ads.
