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InstaNavigation

Privacy policy

Page date

Summary

There are no user accounts on InstaNavigation. No one keeps a log of searched names. Ads pay for the site. An outside ad network shows them and sets its own cookies; the Ads part below says how. We set no tracking cookie of our own. Below is every place where data moves, and the reason.

InstaNavigation also counts, anonymously, where visits come from. Soon after loading, a page reports who referred it (the host, without any path), which of our pages you landed on, your country, with a short campaign label where the link has one; a daily counter goes up by one. Nothing is stored in cookies, and no ID and no IP address is kept. DNT and GPC browsers are skipped. Counters are wiped when they reach three months of age. Repeat visits get a rough count as well. For that the browser keeps a day number from your last time here and InstaNavigation receives a gap class, first time through to over a week. The stored day is no ID, is not sent anywhere, and vanishes when you delete the site’s data. Browsers that send DNT or GPC save nothing.

On your device

  • Recent names. The box remembers your last 10 searches in browser storage. They never reach our server. Press “Clear list” to delete them. A private window deletes the list when you close it.
  • Check pass. Every search runs a quick anti-abuse check that you do not see. Only after heavy use can a visible check appear; once solved, the page holds a short pass for this browser session.
  • Offline pages. A service worker stores this site’s own pages so they still load with a weak connection. Profiles you looked at are never part of that store.
  1. The page moves to an address with the name in it, for example /?u=name. Cloudflare, our host, handles that request like every web request and may log it.
  2. Your browser then sends the name to our server. Our server hands the request to a data company that we pay. That company loads the account from Instagram for us. It learns the name and which server asked (ours); your own IP never appears in that request. It may log the name on its side.
  3. Our server can keep the public profile in memory for some minutes, up to roughly an hour. A repeat search of that name is then served from memory. Nothing goes to disk, and none of it is linked to you.
  4. Instagram’s own image hosts deliver the photos to you directly; like any image host, those log your IP address. Our server sits in the middle for clips and their first frames, profile pictures, the round highlight covers and every file you download.

Limits against abuse

We cap the number of searches per connection. To count, we turn your IP address into a one-way code and throw the address away. Cloudflare’s Turnstile also screens every search without showing anything, and heavy use can bring up a visible puzzle. Cloudflare’s own privacy rules apply to both. Our service stats hold totals only, such as searches and errors, with no names and no IP addresses.

Ads

Ads keep InstaNavigation free. An outside ad network picks them, shows them and sets the rules for its own data. There is no consent window before the ads.

  • Tabs behind the page. A click anywhere on a page can open an ad tab or window, often behind ours.
  • Small ad cards. Little notices slide onto the page. The × button hides one.
  • Full-screen ads. Search results and help pages can show an ad over the whole screen until you close it.
  • Notification request. After a search, your browser may ask if instanavigation.app can send you notifications. If you say yes, ads can come even when the site is closed. To stop them, remove the permission for instanavigation.app in your browser.
  • Partner links. A “Watch next” link at the end of a bio, “Fresh for you” cards and tiles near results and help pages, a strip fixed to the lower edge, and “Top pick” links in three places: the recent-names row, the photo and video viewer, and the last line of every page. Advertisers pay for each of these. They are unrelated to the account on screen.
  • Downloads. Pressing the arrow to save a file can open one partner tab too, no more than once in 60 seconds. Your file stays the same.
  • What the network sees. An IP address, which browser you use, the page language, the window size and our site name. The network and its buyers may set cookies or similar IDs to choose ads, limit repeats, measure who saw or clicked what, and stop fake visits.
  • Blocker test. Before each search the page pings a file on the ad servers. When a blocker cuts that request, the search waits and the page asks you to allow ads. We keep only a daily count of these stops, with no names and no IP addresses.

We never send searched names to the ad network. One caveat: in a result address like /?u=name the name is part of the address, and any script on the page can read it, ad scripts too.

Outside services

  • Cloudflare: our host, the network and Turnstile.
  • The data provider: gets public profiles for our server.
  • Instagram’s image hosts: deliver photos to you directly, bypassing us; clips go through our server.
  • The ad network: runs every ad listed in the Ads part.

We sell nothing. We pass nothing to anyone outside this list. If that ever changes, we update this page before it happens and give it a new date.

Your rights

Email us to learn what we know about you. You can also ask us to fix it or delete it. Most of the time there is no record that could lead back to you, and our email reply will say exactly that. Write to support@instanavigation.app. If you are not happy with our answer, your national data authority can help.