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- Instagram tracks exactly how you tap and scroll inside the app.
- That's unnerving, but the company has an explanation.
- Instagram has had a major bot problem, with accounts automatically liking and following users.
- Tracking how humans behave on Instagram means the company is probably trying to use artificial intelligence to distinguish genuine accounts from bot behaviour.
Instagram is asking all its European users to agree to its updated terms and conditions, and anyone who goes through its current crop of notifications might notice one strange update: The company is tracking the way you tap and scroll through the app.
Under the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Instagram and its parent Facebook must be clear about the kinds of information they collect about users, and why they're collecting it.
In its notification to users, Instagram explained: "We receive different kinds of information from your device, like how you tap and scroll, which can help distinguish humans from bots and detect fraud."
It appears that Instagram first notified users about the tracking in a policy update last month.
The idea that Instagram is keeping tabs on everything its users tap on is unnerving but, from the company's perspective, there is a good explanation.
Instagram has an acknowledged bot problem, and in 2015 one researcher estimated that 8% of all Instagram accounts were fake. According to The New York Times, there's a cottage industry of companies which will automatically like, follow, and comment on Instagram on behalf of their client accounts.
The company began seriously cracking down on bots a year ago when it closed down Instagress, a popular automated like and comment service.
Last year, Instagram also debuted AI tools designed to fight trolls and spam. It's likely that Instagram is using the vast trove of user behaviour data that it collects to train its AI to recognise real humans versus bot-controlled accounts. The end result is likely akin to a score of how likely an account is to be a human or a bot, and Instagram will act accordingly.
Business Insider has contacted Instagram for clarification.
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