PHOENIX — Attorney General Kris Mayes announced today she's joined a bipartisan coalition of 37 Attorneys General, led by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, in urging Instagram to make immediate changes to its newly implemented location-sharing feature.
In a letter to Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, the Attorneys General outlined serious public safety and data privacy concerns about the change, which allows users’ precise locations to be displayed on a map. The coalition emphasized the heightened dangers for vulnerable users, including children and survivors of domestic violence, noting that such tools can be exploited by predators, stalkers, and other malicious actors.
"We have a responsibility to protect kids in Arizona from the new Instagram location privacy settings and the predators who will take advantage of them," said Attorney General Kris Mayes. "As the first mom to serve as Arizona Attorney General, I take this very seriously. Data sharing and location sharing online can be really dangerous for minors-- Instagram must do better."
The letter calls on Instagram to:
- Ensure that minors cannot enable location-sharing features.
- 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.
- For adults who choose to opt in, provide a simple, easy-to-access control to disable location sharing at any time.
The Attorneys General stressed that Meta and Instagram must prioritize user safety over product novelty, and that implementing these measures will protect user privacy while allowing informed adults to choose whether to share their location.
The full letter is available here.