Instagram 14.01.2021

In early 2021 the French marketing agency Influentia.fr was identified as the source of a massive data collection operation involving Instagram profiles. The database was compiled through automated web scraping techniques rather than a direct breach of Instagram infrastructure. It contains nearly 50 million records including extensive public profile details such as full names, account biographies, age, language settings, follower counts, and other metadata. This type of data aggregation is often used for market research but poses privacy risks as it centralizes public information for potential misuse in social engineering or targeted advertising campaigns.