CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 37 attorneys general, is urging Instagram to make immediate changes to its newly implemented location-sharing feature.
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In a letter to Instagram, Raoul and the attorneys general outlined serious public safety and data privacy concerns about the change, which allows users’ precise locations to be displayed on a map. The letter emphasized the heightened dangers for vulnerable users, including children and survivors of domestic violence, noting that such tools can be exploited by predators, stalkers and other bad actors.
“Location sharing should be an optional feature that users and guardians can turn off to help prevent the dangers associated with predators using social media to learn the location of a child or domestic violence survivor,” Raoul said. “In Illinois, we will always put the well-being of our children and survivors first. I am calling on Instagram to take steps to prioritize the safety of children and others who use its platform.”
The letter Raoul and the coalition sent calls on Instagram to ensure minors cannot enable location-sharing features, to send clear alerts to all adult users explaining the feature and its risks, to provide full disclosure of how Instagram will use location data, and to provide a simple, easy-to-access control that allows adults who choose to opt out of the feature to disable location sharing at any time.
Raoul and the coalition stressed that Meta and Instagram must prioritize user safety over product novelty and that implementing these measures will protect user privacy while allowing informed adults to choose whether to share their location.
Joining Raoul in sending the letter were the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
