This site leans hard on your data.
5/5 checks · 2 third parties · 0 cookies · capped at D
Instagram's parent Meta earns roughly 98% of its revenue from targeted advertising. A clean marketing site can’t change that — and a homepage scan can’t see what the app does once you log in — so this grade can’t rise above a D.
Why this grade is capped · sourced, not vibes
Owner Meta was fined a record $5 billion in 2019 for repeatedly deceiving users about who could access their personal data.
Source: FTC v. Facebook, $5 billion penalty and 20-year order, July 2019 (FTC/DOJ)
Parent company Meta let the data of up to 87 million users be harvested without consent and used for political profiling.
Source: FTC actions against Cambridge Analytica, Nix, and Kogan, 2019; widely reported 2018
Meta's core business is tracking your behavior across apps and the web to sell finely targeted advertising.
Source: Meta Platforms SEC 10-K filings (advertising = vast majority of revenue)
What Instagram does with your data
Your connection is encrypted, so others on your network can’t read what you send.
Serves over HTTPS and enforces it (HSTS)
Few outside companies load with the page, so your visit isn’t broadcast widely.
Contacts 2 third-party domains on load
It sets no third-party cookies, so nothing here tags you to follow around the web.
Sets no third-party cookies
None of the trackers it contacts are on our high-risk watchlist.
Contacts no high-risk / adversarial-state domains
It isn’t a registered data broker.
Not a registered data broker
Last scored 6/3/2026
3 of 3 free lookups left this week. DLTD members get unlimited scores — plus we actually remove you from the brokers behind the worst grades.
Get unlimited scores