Attorney General Jackley Joins Bipartisan Call for Instagram To Strengthen Privacy Protections

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2025

Contact: Tony Mangan, Communications Director, 605-773-6878 

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined a bipartisan coalition of 37 Attorneys General in urging Instagram to make immediate changes to its newly implemented location-sharing feature.

“Instagram’s recently implemented location-sharing feature allows the precise locations of users to be displayed on a map.  This raises significant public safety and data privacy concerns,” said Attorney General Jackley. “This new feature could be used by bad actors to prey on vulnerable populations such as children and survivors of domestic violence.”

The Attorneys General, in their letter, ask Instagram to:

1.             Ensure that minors cannot enable location-sharing features. 

2.             Send a clear alert to all adult users explaining the feature, outlining its risks, and providing full disclosure of how Instagram will use their location data. 

3.             For adults who choose to opt in, provide a simple, easy-to-access control to disable location sharing at any time. 

Other Attorneys General on the letter are from: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The letter can be found here: Protect Instagram User Privacy Multistate AG Letter

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