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pishangujeniya / instagram-helper

Instagram Scripts for Bulk Unsending Direct Messages
https://pishangujeniya.github.io/instagram-helper/
MIT License
219 stars 51 forks source link

Add disclaimer stating that Instagram is not actually deleting unsent messages #23

Open nisc opened 3 years ago

nisc commented 3 years ago

Quick feature request, it would be great if you could warn in the app (or at least in the README) that Instagram doesn't actually delete messages when someone uses the "unsend" feature. Instagram only sets a "visible flag" to false, but the data remains on their servers and Instagram / Facebook can still access it.

My understanding is that Instagram only deletes data if the whole account is deleted. (And even then they reserve the right to keep certain data.)

See here: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/messages-you-unsend-on-instagram-are-never-deleted/ar-BB1dpg6g

I have not verified that this is true, but it is very believable and we should be able to find out by exporting our data and looking for unsent messages.

(Not sure if this is related to the Facebook acquisition, but Instagram keeps detailed histories of past usernames, profile bios, telephone numbers, emails, etc... see here: https://www.instagram.com/accounts/access_tool/ )

pishangujeniya commented 3 years ago

Up to my knowledge, Instagram unsends the message instantly from the Chat thread but keeps into the database for 15 Days or 30 days, and if the chat is not reported in that period, then its totally deleted permanently from the database.

This can be confirmed by getting a total zip of our data from Instagram and by searching if they provide the deleted messages or not.

Stil the mystery remains the same, if they really permanently deleted or not, that can never be solved, only just keeping trust on their policies is the way to feel the safety of deletion of our data.

Thank you for creating issue regarding adding a disclaimer, I will properly add the disclaimer in the README with proper links, once I get time.

nisc commented 3 years ago

Thank you, this is better than I had heard. Can you please share the source that mentions that messages are deleted within 15-30 days?

pishangujeniya commented 3 years ago

Thank you, this is better than I had heard. Can you please share the source that mentions that messages are deleted within 15-30 days?

I guess they will be deleting those messages after some period if the conversation is not reported. As they mentioned, these policy writers play with words very smartly, and always keep loopholes on their favour.

You never know, just trusting the policy statement is the way to believe.

nisc commented 3 years ago

Thank you, thus we should have a disclaimer.

I'll test if I can find deleted messages in the data export and will report back here. Could take 15-30 days, though ;-) I'll set a reminder.

EDIT: I looked at an export that I created a few weeks ago and the first thing I see is IP addresses and browser headers going back to 2012 ...

nisc commented 3 years ago

Okay, so in my tests there were no "unsent" messages in any of my data exports, even if the message was unsent immediately before requesting the export. Each message in the export has a field like this:

"is_unsent": false

This makes me believe that Instagram excludes unsent messages when exporting user data, even if Instagram is still in possession of the data. I found several other types of data that were missing from the export, but which are still visible somewhere on the Instagram website. It is clearly not a complete export of all user data.