Washington Post – no paywall or MSN: “Instagram has a new feature to share your precise real-time location with friends. There are many, many reasons you should think twice before enabling it. I’ll show you the settings you need to know. Starting this week in the U.S., Instagram rolled out a new map view, which you access at the top of the direct-message inbox. The map, confusingly, combines two forms of location sharing: First, it includes locations you have actively tagged in recent Instagram stories or posts. Second, the app nudges you to opt in to a new form of passive location sharing — letting friends see wherever you last opened the app, even just to scroll through it. Many users have been shocked to see their own locations on the Instagram map that the social network’s head Adam Mosseri posted a “clarification” on Thursday that “your location will only be shared *if* you decide to share it.” Sharing your real-time whereabouts with friends can sound fun, and is popular among younger users with apps such as Apple’s FindMy or on the Snapchat app’s Snap Map. But relationship and parenting experts warn location sharing can also turn into a stressful or even dangerous form of control…”

See also How to Geek – PSA: You Might Want to Turn Off Your Instagram Location Settings -“…This new “Map” feature, which you’ll find at the top of your DMs, lets you see where your friends are in real time (along with location-tagged posts). While this feature is off by default, I noticed that I seemed to be visible on the map. Just to be safe, it’s a good idea to take a look at your settings and ensure this feature won’t share your location. Previously, you could share your location in DMs, similar to what you might do with Google Maps, and it would disappear after 24 hours if you hadn’t opened the app. Now, if you have the new Maps feature enabled, your location updates every time you open the app and disappears if you don’t open it for 24 hours…”