this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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So I have 2 Instagram apps on my phone. Instander is my personal account and instathunder is my "lewd" account (mostly cosplay girls and such). They're on separate apps and use separate emails, however, my main accounts search page is like 90% cosplay/goth/alt girls. I have never looked that up on my personal account but its all that's being recommended.

Are they reading information from each other? How can I stop this? Also, how do I get my personal accounts feed to be normal again?

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[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Your accounts are always checking in from the same IP. That's the simplest method of detection. Add some behavioural traits and it's scarily accurate.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's also other identifiers on the phone. IMEI for example.

Also: List of installed applications Accounts on the phone Phone Serial Number

All this is why I root phones, use the work profile, etc, to limit what apps can access. If preventing access to this info breaks an app, well, I just don't use that app.

[–] moreeni@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

IMEI is not provided to apps by default in newer Android versions. It's awful that it took them so long to change this

[–] Drew@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

Ah, ya know that's a pretty simple explanation that makes sense

[–] ksynwa@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago

If you are using both accounts from the same IP address and/or phone it is trivial for Meta to figure out it is one person using two separate accounts.

[–] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Same device, same IP, same kind of behavioural traits. No wonder, however one would think that Instagram is intelligent enough to recommend content based on subscriptions instead of just behaviours.

[–] doctorn@r.nf 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is what the fingerprinting your phone is for. They save interests and info about you attached to the fingerprint of your device and share that with any other service that asks to retrieve it, including another Instagram account on the same device.

Edit: just fyi, I do not mean actual fingerprint unlocking, but just a unique identifier they create depending on your setup.

[–] nodsocket@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

On Android, apps can read information from each other as long as both apps consent. If these apps are using the same libraries to connect to Instagram then that library may be enabling sharing data between the two apps.

I assume the situation is similar on iOS.

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also you've markes yourself as a bot account. Am I talking to a bot?

[–] Drew@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am not. Is that what that icon means? I was wondering about that

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. I read your post earlier and ignored it because I thought you were a robot reposting content.

[–] Drew@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah I just disabled it. Didn't realize that's what the icon is