"See who visited my Instagram profile." Just enter this search in Google Play to realize the number of applications that promise to reveal this information. Most of these applications tend to be owned by little-known developers or companies with generic names like "Social Media Apps" or "B&S Apps." Beyond the function that they promise to provide users and the in-app payment system integrated in each of these applications, the truth is that there is quite a dark business? behind these kinds of tools . Business that we will discuss below.
No, no application can reveal who has visited your Instagram profile
Neither Instagram, nor any other application outside the Facebook service. The API of the application is very strict in appearance, and today it is not possible to extract data from who has visited our profile on Instagram or who has seen our last publication. It's not something I say. It is something that we can see on the Facebook developer platform on Instagram.
Starting from this premise, we can affirm that any application that promises to reveal this data will not fulfill its mission. Most of the estimates made by this type of application are based on the degree of interaction we have with other users , data that is currently accessible from Instagram libraries. This means that a large part of the applications are limited to offering a list of users who have had the most interaction with our profile in recent days, either through comments, likes or conversations through private chats. Instagram.
These are the activity and interaction data that Instagram offers to companies.
A piece of information that is accessible from the Instagram application itself has to do with the number of people who have visited our profile in the last 7 days . Also the reach of our posts and Instagram Stories metrics.
In order to know this information, however, we will have to register our profile as a company profile. In any case, you will never be able to view information segmented by users or user group, that is, we can see the number of visits that our profile has obtained in the last week but never the people who have made that visit .
Owner login : this is how they are done with your password
Entering fully into the operation of this type of applications, most come to imitate what in development language is known as "proprietary login", a method that clearly seeks to obtain user access data (email , phone number and password). Just take a look at the login screen to distinguish between a proprietary login and the native Instagram login .
Owner login vs. Instagram login.
The difference between one and the other goes beyond the aesthetics of the interface. And it is that while the data of the first screen passes through the application servers, the data of the access screen of Instagram remains on Instagram and only on Instagram . When the server verifies that the data is correct, the application sends the access request to Instagram and the latter grants it.
It is from this point where the data is stored in the application's own database. It is from this point where the dark business of these types of applications begins .
Selling followers and accounts: the dark business behind these apps
There is something that all the applications that promise to give the information that concerns us fulfill: they all come from Asian developers. India, Malaysia, China ... These, in turn, only have a single application. The business in either case is the same: the sale of followers and accounts to third-party companies . Just take a look at the comments of the respective apps on Google Play to verify it.
Some of the most revealing comments read the following:
“Too bad, I wanted to try again with facebook, and it won't let me, and I don't understand why my password isn't wrong. And on Instagram it won't let me log in, since it asks for a password, but I logged in with my facebook. "
"I can not put less than one star, do not download it, only a few times allows you to enter then you can not even if you enter well your home does not enter, as a result of this I got a notification on my Facebook that someone is trying to enter my account, apparently this app steals your information ... "
“Every time I open the application, after two days my Instagram detects a login from a Samsung S7 (which I don't have). By chance I change the password and nobody comes back in, until I put the new password again to open this application and the login from the S7 reappears… Suspicious at least not? Anyway."
Some users even claim that since registering in the application, a multitude of Indian accounts have begun to appear on their Instagram profile . Others claim that it is impossible for them to access the account using the original password. Both cases confirm what we raised from the beginning: the business of these applications is in the sale of accounts and followers.
The solution: improve Play Protect security
At this point, it is inevitable to wonder about the presence of this type of application on Google Play. A practice that helps prevent the disappearance of these tools in the Google store has to do with the obligation to rate applications with five stars to obtain added advantages .
"Rate the application with 5 stars and discover 10 free profiles", "Rate the application positively and discover 5 new followers". The wheel continues to turn, and the only solution is to improve the security of Play Protect and force all applications to make use of the native Instagram login , although from a personal point of view I would bet on the total disappearance of these applications in the respective ones app stores.