MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDNews) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined 36 other attorneys general in calling on Instagram to change its newly launched location-sharing feature, citing public safety and privacy concerns.
In a letter to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, the coalition warned that the feature, which can display a user’s precise location on a map, poses serious risks to vulnerable groups such as children and domestic violence survivors. They argued the tool could be exploited by predators, stalkers and for other malicious purposes.
“Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable information collected today, and yet, it’s often carelessly shared by social media platforms without users fully understanding the consequences,” Marshall said. “It’s long past time they take responsibility and implement serious safeguards to protect users from harm.”
The letter urges Instagram to prevent minors from enabling location sharing, send a clear alert to all adult users explaining the risks and how the data will be used, and ensure adults can easily disable the feature at any time.
The attorneys general stressed that Meta, Instagram’s parent company, must put safety before product novelty. The full letter is available on the Alabama Attorney General’s website.
