How to Delete Instagram Account Permanently: Step-by-Step Guide and Privacy Advice

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Should you delete or activate your Instagram account?

Instagram – the only place where a scanty breakfast is a full-blown artistic statement and duck-facing is the norm. What a time to be alive! Have you ever stopped to think about your privacy? Insta may be a great way to share your story, show every how well life treats you (even if it’s not true), and stalk your favorite celebrities, but it’s also an old-time favorite stomping ground for hackers and con artists. So, what will it be – take the leap or go back to safety? In anticipation of the issues you didn’t know you had until today, I’m going to teach you how to delete Instagram account permanently.

I will also be going to tackle some known Instagram-related privacy issues just to prove that you won’t miss out on anything – sometimes, a plate of food is just a plate of food. Enjoy!

To disable or delete? That is the question.

Interesting dilemma, don’t you think? I mean, why should you go medieval on that Instagram account when you can simply disable it temporarily? Well, because it would still be there – lonely, vulnerable, up for grabs, vultures circling. What I mean is despite your account being disabled, your personal data is still there. Anyway, before I show you how to delete Instagram account permanently, here’s how to deactivate it temporarily. Maybe this will give you enough time to ponder on your decision.

How to deactivate your Instagram account

If you still plan on going through with this, first you will need to hop on your Instagram account. Dash off your username and password if you’re not signed in.

Now, for laptops and desktops, head to Profile (it’s in the upper-right corner of your screen). After that, click on Edit Profile. Under the Edit Profile menu, click on the hyperlink reading “Temporarily disable my account”. You’re going to find it in the right panel, at the bottom of the screen.

From there, you will be taken to another screen where you have to complete some additional steps to deactivate your account. First, state the reason why you want to disable your account.

Please select the appropriate one (no, Mars going into retrograde is not a legitimate reason). You will notice that the Temporarily Disable Account button is greyed out. It’s going to stay that way until you supply a reason and re-enter the password associated with your Instagram account. When you’re ready, hit the button I’ve mentioned. That’s it!

One more thing: you can deactivate your Insta account only once per week. Although your account will be hidden, your personal data will remain on Instagram’s servers. When you feel ready to end your Insta sabbatical, simply login to your account to reactive it.

Now, if you ended on seeing this through to the end, here’s how you permanently disable your Insta account.

How to delete Instagram account permanently

That time has finally come – you simply can’t deal with Instagram’s privacy reassurances which mean that the only sensible course of action is to delete your account altogether.

Yes, I know it’s not the solution you would have hoped for, but, hey, better a dead account than having all your files locked by some random ransomware found in the wild.

Anyway, if you really want to go through with this, here’s how to permanently delete your Instagram account.

First, you would want to access the Instagram account page. To spare you the trouble, here’s the link to Instagram online. The process’ pretty much the same as in the case of account deactivation: point out a reason and re-enter your password. When you’re done, press on the “Permanently delete my account” button.

Before completing the last step of the process, please make sure that you have a backup copy of all the data on your Instagram account. This includes pictures, videos, gifs, Tik-Tok shorts, Boomerang clips, stories, and everything else. Once Instagram deletes your account, there’s no way to get back your stuff.

Privacy tweaks you should try before deleting\deactivating your account

Second-guessing your decision of deleting or deactivating your Instagram account? Well, there are a few things you can try out before this. So, without further ado, here are a couple of privacy tweaks to make your account a whole lot safer.
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