InstaDesk Privacy Policy
Last updated: 4 November 2026
What InstaDesk stores on your computer
Everything the extension saves stays in Chrome on your own computer. Most of it is in the extension's own storage; the files of posts you schedule and the What it knows record are kept in instagram.com's storage in Chrome (see Deleting your data below).
| Data | Why | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Tool settings (ad blocker, ghost mode, mobile view, video controls, themes) | Remember your preferences | Local browser storage |
| Hashtag collections, saved DM replies, and what you wrote under Tell it about you and the questions you get asked | Content you wrote for reuse | Local browser storage |
| Scheduled posts, including the photo or video files | So a scheduled post can be published later | instagram.com's storage in Chrome (IndexedDB); deleted once published or cancelled |
| A snapshot of your follower list (usernames and ids) | To tell you who unfollowed you since the last scan | Local browser storage; overwritten on each scan |
| What it knows (called Memory before 3.3.2): your follower and post numbers by day, who left, what you queued, the sounds in your feed | So Ask, the Today card and insights can answer from your own history | instagram.com's storage in Chrome (IndexedDB); kept a year; export it or press Forget everything in the What it knows panel |
| Songs you played or used: Instagram's ids, titles, artists, cover links and reel counts, and its trending places | So covers and numbers show again without asking Instagram | Local browser storage, at most 400 songs: numbers show for 24 hours, but the latest ones and up to 8 daily reel counts a song are kept, to see which songs are rising; never the audio |
| Reply drafts (called Autopilot before 3.3.2) and its log: the comments and messages it read, and the replies it wrote | So you can read, edit and send each reply, and see what was done | Local browser storage |
| Songs waiting to be shared for search, and the ids of those shared in the last 30 days | So the same song is not sent twice | Local browser storage: at most 200 waiting and about 5,000 ids |
| Grow account settings and history | To enforce the hourly and daily limits, and show you the record | Local browser storage; history is discarded after 24 hours |
| Activity log | So you can always see what InstaDesk has done on your account | Local browser storage; capped, and cleared when you clear it |
| The day you last opened How-to videos | So only newer videos say New | Local browser storage |
| Featured this week: the public list and its pictures as last read, whether you have hidden it, and, if you asked to be featured, your username, the day you asked and the answer as last read | So the menu can show the list without asking again, and show you that you asked and what the answer was | Local browser storage; the list is read again at most every 6 hours, the answer at most every 6 hours while you wait, and your request is cleared once you are on the list, and no longer shown after 30 days; a picture is removed 7 days after it was last shown |
| When you press InstaDesk's icon in Chrome's toolbar and it has to reload or open your Instagram tab: the time you pressed it | So the menu opens once that tab has loaded | Local browser storage; cleared when the next Instagram page loads, and used only within a minute |
| The day's totals of upgrade screens, checkout opens and payments, and its usage totals; for an install since 3.3.3, the day it was installed; and which first steps have been counted | Kept until the day is over and they are sent (see below); a first step is counted only once | Local browser storage; the totals are removed once sent, after a week, or at once when you turn off Share anonymous usage counts |
Uninstalling the extension removes all of it, except the files of posts you scheduled and the What it knows record, which stay in instagram.com's storage in Chrome until you cancel those posts and press Forget everything in What it knows, or clear instagram.com's site data.
Your Instagram account
InstaDesk acts inside your browser as you. When you publish, download, scan your followers or read your insights, the request goes from your browser straight to Instagram using the session already in it. InstaDesk never sees, stores or sends your Instagram password, and it cannot reach your account when your browser is closed.
Some tools act on your account without a click for each action, and only if you turn them on after reading and ticking a risk notice. Grow account likes posts and, if you choose, follows accounts on hashtags you pick. Reply drafts (called Autopilot before 3.3.2) writes replies to comments and DMs, and can like comments on your posts; every reply it writes waits for you to read it and press Send before anything goes to anyone. For a DM, InstaDesk opens Instagram's conversation with the reply typed in, and you press Instagram's Send.
What reaches a server of ours
| Data | Why | How long it is kept |
|---|---|---|
| Your Instagram account's numeric ID, a random install ID, and how many free uses of each Pro tool, and free tries of link stories, songs and downloads, you have spent | So the free uses are counted per account and a reinstall does not reset them. Sent when you open Instagram and when you use a Pro tool | The counts are kept until you ask us to delete them |
| A daily count of AI requests, against a one-way hash of your ExtensionPay licence key (never the key itself), or before you buy, against your Instagram ID or install ID | To enforce the daily limit on InstaDesk's AI | 35 days |
| Totals for each day, and nothing else: how many times the upgrade screen was shown (and for which tool), how many times checkout was opened (and for which plan), whether a payment went through, and the version of InstaDesk. No account, no install ID, no licence key and no Instagram data | So we can tell whether a change to the upgrade screen helps. Sent once a day, for the day before. The relay adds it to one of several running totals for that day, and about a week later adds those into the day's single total for everyone | The running totals about a week (until then one may hold a single install's day), then the day's single total about a year. Nothing in them says which install they came from |
| Usage totals for each day, unless you switch them off (since 3.3.3): whether InstaDesk was used that day, in which of its languages and with or without the simple home; how often the menu and More tools were opened, which tools were opened and which home buttons pressed; how often How-to videos was opened, and how often its Pro card was shown and its button pressed; which tab Create opened on; how many posts, reels and stories went up or failed, by kind, with a short class for a failure (for example "timeout" or "limited", never Instagram's words); how many were scheduled; how many questions Ask was asked and answered, and how many of its plans were run; how many reply drafts were made and opened; how often Featured this week was opened and how often a profile in it was opened (never which one); how many Notes went up with a song and how many songs Instagram refused (never the words or the song); why a song failed, from one fixed list of reasons (never which song); how often the review card was shown and its button pressed; which kinds of error came up (for example "the old inbox answered 404"); whether InstaDesk was installed that day; and, once each, how many days after installing someone first opened the menu, opened Create, made a post, made a story with a link, scheduled a post, met the upgrade screen, opened checkout, asked Ask a question or paid. Only names from a fixed list and small numbers. No account, no install ID, no username, no post, no caption, no message, no link and no licence key | So we can see where people get stuck between installing and paying, which tools are used and which errors people hit, without knowing who anyone is. Sent once a day, for the day before. The relay adds it to one of several running totals for that day, and about a week later adds those into the day's single total for everyone. To stop it, turn off Share anonymous usage counts in InstaDesk's Settings: nothing is counted after that, and days not yet sent are dropped | The running totals about a week (until then one may hold a single install's day), then the day's single total about a year. Nothing in them says which install they came from |
| Songs on the pages you view. Only while Share songs for search is on in InstaDesk's Settings (since 4.0.5): the title, artist, Instagram's ids for the song and its length, for songs Instagram's page has already shown you. Sent in small batches, at most one a day, without your account, licence key, install ID or anything else about you. No cover pictures or links | So InstaDesk's song search can find songs that Instagram's website cannot. As on any website, Cloudflare handles each request's IP address to deliver it; the relay's code does not read or keep it. To stop it, turn off the switch: nothing more is shared, and songs waiting to go are dropped | Kept until removed, as a list of songs with a count of how many batches each was in and the first and last day it was seen. A song seen rarely is deleted after 14 days. Nothing in that list says who sent a song, or what you were looking at. No audio is sent or stored |
| What you type in song search. The words only, with no account, when InstaDesk's song search is on (since 4.0.5). The switch above does not change this: it covers what you share | To match them against that list of songs | Not stored by us. Your browser may keep the answer for up to ten minutes |
| When you use Ask, Reply drafts, Write with AI or the weekly summary on InstaDesk's own AI: your question, the parts of your record it needs, and the page you have open. For Reply drafts, the comments and messages it is replying to and the usernames of the people who wrote them. For a question about a post, up to three still frames of it | To be answered. The relay passes it to the AI provider and returns the answer | Not stored by us. The relay keeps no questions and no answers |
| Only when you press Feature my account on Pro: the Instagram username you are logged in as, the short lines you wrote, if any, your profile picture if you ticked the box (made 192 by 192 pixels on your computer first), your licence key and the version of InstaDesk. The relay asks ExtensionPay whether your Pro is active and adds the email you paid with and your plan from its answer. Afterwards, when you open Featured this week, InstaDesk Pro or Settings within 30 days, your licence key again, to read the answer | So the person who builds InstaDesk can check your request by hand, and so you can see the answer in InstaDesk | The request until it is copied to the builder's computer, and 60 days at most, filed under a one-way hash of your licence key, never the key itself. The day you asked and the answer, with no username and no email, 30 days. The day you asked, under a keyed one-way hash of the email you paid with, never the email, 30 days |
If you use your own AI key instead, that text goes straight from your browser to your own provider, and InstaDesk's relay does not see it.
Featured this week
Only if you are on Pro and press Feature my account. Nothing is sent before you press it. When you press it, InstaDesk sends its relay the Instagram username you are logged in as (read from your logged-in session, never typed), the short lines you wrote, if any (what you do, and why people should follow you), and, only if you tick the picture box, your own profile picture, which InstaDesk reads from Instagram when you tick it and makes small and square (192 by 192 pixels) on your computer. The relay checks with ExtensionPay that your Pro is active and keeps, with your request, the email you paid with and your plan, from ExtensionPay's answer. It files the request under a one-way hash of your licence key and never keeps the key. The request stays on the relay until the person who builds InstaDesk copies it to the builder's computer, and 60 days at most. Under the same hash, the relay keeps the day you asked and the answer, with no username and no email, for 30 days, so InstaDesk can show you the answer and you can ask once every 30 days. For the same 30 days it keeps the day you asked under a keyed one-way hash of the email you paid with, never the email, so one subscription asks once every 30 days from any computer. The builder's computer also keeps a short note of each request it copies: the username, the day, and one-way hashes of the licence key and of the email you paid with (no email, no lines, no picture), for 180 days, even after a no or after you come off, so one subscription can't ask for one account after another; the licence key's hash also stays with your entry while you wait or are listed. Versions of InstaDesk before 4.0.2 asked by email and a direct message instead; that way is closed. The builder reads each request and looks at your public profile by hand. If you are picked, your username, your lines and your picture go in public files on InstaDesk's website and are shown in InstaDesk, a week or a day at a time, while you are on Pro. Your picture is made small and square again on the builder's computer, and nothing else from any original file is kept. Anyone can read that file, Instagram included, so anyone can see that you use InstaDesk. Your picture is public in the same way. InstaDesk loads the pictures from its own website, never from Instagram, at most every 6 hours, and every install loads the same ones, so those requests say nothing about you or about whom you open. Pro is checked each month. Your email stays on the builder's computer, only to check that your Pro is active and which requests come from the same subscription. It is never published. To come off, press Take me off or email the address below: you are off the list within 2 days, and your email, your lines and your picture are deleted from the builder's computer; the short note of your request stays until its 180 days are up. The web host keeps old copies of the files in its deploy history for up to 30 days. Pressing View profile only opens that Instagram page. InstaDesk never follows anyone for you. InstaDesk keeps only two daily totals (how often the panel is opened and how often View profile is pressed), with no name and no ID, and never who you open. You can hide Featured this week in Settings.
The outside services involved
| Service | What it receives | When |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram (instagram.com, cdninstagram.com, fbcdn.net) | The same requests your browser would normally make, plus the actions you ask for | Whenever you use a tool, and slowly in the background to read the sounds in your feed, the accounts you watch and your own numbers, and when you press Play or Use on a song in Add music. Governed by Instagram's own privacy policy. |
| InstaDesk's AI relay (Cloudflare Workers) | What is listed in the table above | When you open Instagram, use a Pro tool, or use InstaDesk's AI, once a day for the totals above, and when you press Feature my account. |
| DeepSeek, the AI provider behind InstaDesk's own model | The text of an AI request, passed on by the relay. No password, no licence key | Only when you use InstaDesk's AI. Governed by DeepSeek's own privacy policy. |
| OpenAI or Anthropic | The text of an AI request, sent from your browser with your own key | Only if you add your own key and use the AI features. |
| YouTube (Google) | Nothing from InstaDesk | Only if you press a video on the How-to videos page or a Watch how link. The video opens on youtube.com like any link you click. Governed by Google's own privacy policy. |
| InstaDesk configuration file | Nothing. The request asks for a static file and sends no information about you | Occasionally, to learn which parts of Instagram have changed. And, every few hours, the list of how-to videos, plus their pictures when you open How-to videos, from the same host. At most every 6 hours, also a small file with the list for Featured this week; that request sends nothing about you either. With it, the small pictures in that list, the same for everyone. Configuration data only; no code is downloaded or run. |
| Netlify, which hosts this website | Only if you choose to answer on the page that opens when you uninstall: the reason you picked, anything you typed, and your browser's language | Only when you press Send there. No name or email is asked for. |
| ExtensionPay / Stripe | Your email address and payment details, entered on their pages; afterwards, a licence check | Only once you open checkout. Card details go directly to Stripe; InstaDesk never sees them. |
What we do not do
- No analytics services, tracking pixels or crash reporting. The only counting is the daily totals listed above, which carry no account, install ID or Instagram data, and the usage totals can be switched off in Settings.
- No ad networks and no ads from other companies, and no selling of data to anyone. The only accounts InstaDesk shows are Featured this week: InstaDesk Pro members who asked to be there. Data goes to the services above only to provide the feature you are using; the one exception is the daily totals, which name no one.
- Nothing is sent to anyone in a DM or a comment until you have read it and pressed Send.
- Bot detection is read-only and never removes a follower for you.
- No account access without you present: nothing touches your account unless an Instagram tab is open.
Deleting your data
Uninstalling removes InstaDesk's settings and records from Chrome. Two things live in instagram.com's own storage in your browser instead, and stay until you clear them: the files of posts you scheduled, and the What it knows record. Before you uninstall, cancel any scheduled posts and press Forget everything in What it knows, or afterwards clear instagram.com's site data in Chrome's settings. To have your free-use counts deleted from the relay, email the address below with your Instagram username. The daily totals cannot be deleted for one person, because nothing in them says whose they are.
Children
InstaDesk is not directed at children under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and the new version ships alongside the extension update that made the change necessary.
Contact
Questions, or a data request: groomekonnor@gmail.com
Not affiliated with Instagram
InstaDesk is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Instagram or Meta Platforms, Inc. “Instagram” is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.