I don't know that monitoring other peoples' Instagram accounts is a good stance on privacy. The nature of your product means your users can't be held accountable for any inappropriate monitoring. My wife has a very real stalker with a restraining order, and this is *exactly* the kind of application he or anybody else would abuse.
It's great that you published this product, but some products are better left not out in the open, you know?
I'm hoping Instagram come forward and block it.
@lukejones Sorry to hear that!!! The aim of my service is to help businesses with their social media strategy, not to harass people. There are many services on the Internet that can be used for bad intentions, but that doesn't mean those should be blocked. If you ask me, every personal IG account should be set to private by default
@lukejones After a long night of coding, I've finally found a solution. I'm happy to announce that as of today, InstaMon can be used to monitor BUSINESS accounts only!
When I've built this service, my intentions were good and I never thought it can be used in a bad way. Again, sorry about this!
@tonixx This is a really solid update, great work.
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Have you thought through potential misuses of your service? Like, someone’s already joked about tracking an ex. That seems like a very real possibility.
Will people be able to exclude their Instagram handle from your tracking services?
@thelastwalt My service only automates what anyone with an Instagram account can do. There's a simple solution for the ones that don't want to be tracked: set the IG account private. If they do that, a stalker won't be able to track them
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@thelastwalt@tonixx Ahhhh the old “if you don’t want peeping toms to look through your window then maybe you should buy curtains” logic. “My peeping Tom ladder only allows people to do things they are already doing” Wonderful!
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@tonixx When you say “people who don’t want to be harassed can make their accounts private,” you’re saying the *possibility* of one bad actor should force anyone who’s not a straight, white, cis man out of any sort of participation in the online public square.
That’s unacceptable math.
But your assertion that you're doing the same thing anyone with an Instagram account can do is incorrect. If I want to turn on notifcation's for someone's posts on Instagram, I need to follow them. If they don't want me seeing their posts (or when they post), they can block or report me.
This anonymous email stalking completely circumvents what little transparency and control people have.
And even if you were right, an you are only automating what's already possible: automating abusive behavior is wrong. You should have a plan for dealing with it before you launch a product that will allow it.
@thelastwalt@uxla After a long night of coding, I've finally found a solution. I'm happy to announce that as of today, InstaMon can be used to monitor BUSINESS accounts only!
When I've built this service, my intentions were good and I never thought it can be used in a bad way. Again, sorry about this!
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Whatever value this product has for marketing is outweighed by it's potential for abuse—stalking and harassment.
When an Instagram user wants updates about when his ex posts now, for instance, he has to be following her. So she knows he can watch her posts and has the power to block him.
InstaMon completely circumvents what little control people have in these situations, and is only contributing to a world in which one bad actor can force a person (usually from a marginalized group) out of the public online square. ("Because if you don't want to be stalked, you can always lock your account.")
It's clear from his comments the creator doesn't see the issue and doesn't have a plan for dealing with abuse. But when you're creating someone that automates existing behaviors on a platform and one of those behaviors is abuse, it's your responsibility to have a plan for addressing it.
@thelastwalt The service can only be used to monitor public accounts and doesn't work for private accounts, so the stalking part is out of the question
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@tonixx you know you can stalk people when they’re out in public, right?
@thelastwalt True, but at least on Instagram you have the option to set your account as private and only the followers you approve can see what you post
@thelastwalt After a long night of coding, I've finally found a solution. As of today, InstaMon can be used to monitor BUSINESS accounts only!
When I've built this service, my intentions were good and I never thought it can be used in a bad way. Again, sorry about this!
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@tonixx I'm glad the conversation happened. I want to personally thank you for listening and taking action so quickly to prevent your service to be used in harmful ways. 🙌
@tonixx hmm I’m not entirely sure whether that’s correct or where you get that from. But... you’re shifting the responsibility to not being tracked onto those who probably won’t ever know that they’re being tracked? And in another comment in this thread you said you were working on a notification system when they post (though you couldn’t figure out the same notification for stories and you asked for suggestions on that). I’m going to honest, the possibilities for this product to be used for bad is VERY high and you should think about that.
@stewart_scott_curran Now that you're saying that, I realize that you're right. I won't pursue the monitoring of the private accounts. However, public accounts can be stalked by anyone ... they don't even need an IG account. The public accounts are even indexed by Google. So if someone is concerned about their privacy, they should definitely make their account private
@tonixx Maybe you shouldn’t release a product that can be so easily misused. It’s not appropriate to shift the burden of responsibility onto individuals who probably won’t ever know they’re being tracked. I understand you’ve spent several months on this but you should spend a bit more time thinking about the potential ways this can be abused.
@tonixx Or just stop trying to answer the tough questions I guess. By releasing this you're complicit in the harassment of women on the internet. Congrats.
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This tool is a *terrible* idea. I can't imagine how this tool doesn't violate Instagram's ToS, but regardless, it still has high potential to be abused by bad actors to stalk and harass people. Stalking precedes threatening behavior and sometimes even violence.
If you found that a user on Instagram was seriously injured or killed by someone who stalked them using InstaMon, what would you think your culpability in that would be?
@malchata That would be tragic! When I've built this tool, I never intended for it to be used for dark reasons. I'm working on a solution to only permit the monitoring of business accounts
@malchata After a long night of coding, I've finally found a solution. I'm happy to announce that as of today, InstaMon can be used to monitor BUSINESS accounts only!
When I've built this service, my intentions were good and I never thought it can be used in a bad way. Again, sorry about this!
What is even the point of creating this "product"? This will be a net-negative, no doubt.
Also the creator's solution to those being harassed and stalked via this tool is to "just turn their account on private." What a wonderful tool this must be if this is a common result of its usage.
@jd_yaguara After a long night of coding, I've finally found a solution. I'm happy to announce that as of today, InstaMon can be used to monitor BUSINESS accounts only!
When I've built this service, my intentions were good and I never thought it can be used in a bad way. Again, sorry about this!
Hi guys,
After a 2 year period of procrastination, I've finally convinced myself to get back on the startup bandwagon. I've started working on what I thought was a 1-week project ... I was very wrong! It took me almost 3 months to put all the pieces together and get it done.
The idea for the project came to me when a friend, who runs a small Social Media Agency, complained that he wasted too much time tracking the Instagram accounts of his clients competitors. I saw a need, so I've started working on InstaMon.
Please let me know what you think about InstaMon. I would love to hear your feedback!
UPDATE: based on the feedback I've received, I've updated the service to allow the monitoring of BUSINESS accounts only. You can't monitor personal accounts anymore using InstaMon
@tonixx Finally! Trying it right now 😊 quick note that I hit a snag when trying to enter my email wouldn't accept the local+parameter@domain.tld syntax
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