Class Action: Recent iOS Update Uncovered Instagram Constantly Monitors Users, Captures ‘Most Intimate Moments’

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Instagram is under fire as a proposed class action alleges a recent Apple iOS update has revealed the social media platform “constantly” accesses users’ smartphone cameras while the app is open, monitoring users without consent even when they’re not interacting with the app’s camera feature. 

The 36-page lawsuit claims Instagram, LLC and parent company Facebook’s practice of accessing users’ cameras without authorization “goes beyond the services that Instagram promises to provide” and stands in stark contrast to an assurance made by the photo-focused app in a recently released public statement.

“Instagram has no legitimate reason for accessing users’ smartphone cameras when they are not using the Instagram camera feature,” the complaint contends. “By doing so, Defendants have been able to monitor users’ most intimate moments, including those in the privacy of their own homes, in addition to collecting valuable insight and market research on its users.”

As the lawsuit tells it, the defendants, who have for years represented themselves as valuing and respecting full transparency and user privacy, engage in this level of surveillance primarily to collect “lucrative and valuable” data to which the companies would otherwise have no access. 

By obtaining “extremely private and intimate” personal information on users, including details gleaned from the privacy of their homes, Instagram and Facebook are able to boost their ad revenue by amplifying their targeting capabilities, the suit asserts, alleging the defendants can, for example, “see in-real time [sic] how users respond to advertisements” on the app and relay such to advertisers. 

Per the suit, the full extent and scope of Instagram and Facebook’s unauthorized user monitoring has only recently come to light due to a significant June 22 Apple iOS update, the first through which users are provided notice of when third parties access their camera and microphone or collect data. According to the complaint, reports emerged for the first time around July 25 that Instagram was secretly and without authorization accessing and spying on users through their smartphone cameras:

“Apple released iOS 14 to developers on June 22, 2020, and the general public on July 9, 2020. Among other things, the update allows users to see which applications are accessing their camera or microphone, which reportedly ‘exposed’ Instagram’s conduct. 

The update informs users by a green ‘camera on’ indicator that companies, such as Instagram, are monitoring them through their camera. Instagram users were notified by the green ‘camera on’ indicator that Instagram was accessing, and monitoring them through, their cameras while they were not using Instagram’s camera feature and for reasons beyond any ‘service’ that Instagram claims to provide.”

No disclosure is made in Instagram’s data policy that the company will access a user’s camera when they are not in fact using the camera, the suit goes on, charging the defendants’ conduct amounts to “an egregious violation of their privacy rights.” 

Further, Facebook has acknowledged the impact Apple’s privacy-fortifying update would have on its ad revenue and has “begun meeting with its most notable advertising partners to discuss potential repercussions,” according to the case.

The lawsuit alleges Instagram and Facebook’s conduct alleged herein violates the California Consumer Privacy Act, a law with which both companies are obligated to comply given they individually earn more than $25 million in annual gross revenue and buy, sell, receive, or share thousands of consumers’ personal data for commercial purposes. 

Included in the proposed class are all Instagram users whose smartphone cameras were accessed by Instagram without consent from 2010 through the present. 

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