Instagram

Malwarebytes has warned Instagram users that downloading third-party applications that enable them to download their Instagram photos and videos to desktop machines could expose them to a number of security vulnerabilities.

Malwarebytes said that the possible threats - files and websites alike - that take advantage of a software's popularity could spell bad news for users in terms of internet congestion, unwanted redirection to websites and possible installation of other programs without the user's consent.

Private profiles of Instagram users could be made public as a result of a vulnerability that took almost six months to fix.

The flaw would have enabled hackers to change privacy settings within user profiles to expose potentially sensitive photos to the internet, or to lock down popular pages by marking them as private.

Insert your username and password, get free followers and Likes. This is what tens of thousands of Instagram users thought was happening.

More than 100,000 Instagram users fell for a bold, effective scam called InstLike, an app that promised free Likes and followers on the photo sharing platform. The app asked users to share their usernames and passwords after downloading, turning them into willing participants of a giant social botnet.

Short on good Instagram feeds to follow? Well, the Transportation Security Administration certainly has a colorful new account.

Peppered with images of Bowie knifes, handguns, grenades, and more, this account specifically features "prohibited items found at TSA checkpoints."

At a press conference held in Menlo Park Thursday Facebook announced a redesign for the News Feed its users see when they visit its site or use its mobile app. The new News Feed focuses on reducing clutter, making visually oriented posts like photos more prominent. It also makes filters for types of content front and center, such as dedicated feeds for posts by friends or posts by pages.

A number of Instagram's 90 million active users are in a confused panic after being locked out of their accounts over the weekend, and several seem to believe they've been hacked.

On Saturday, the same day the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app enacted its revised terms or service, Yahoo Answers was inundated with threads from alarmed Instagram users who claimed to have lost access to their accounts for no apparent reason.

Instagram's updated terms of service and privacy policy go into effect this Saturday, Jan. 19. At least for now, the new policies will mean little change for users. But when changes come, as they likely will, Instagrammers won't have much time to change their privacy settings. And that's a good reason to consider making your account private in the calm before another storm.

In an attempt to corner off Twitter-integration from any third-party applications, Twitter has now announced that photo integration from Instagram will no longer work, meaning tweets with images will not have an image embedded in the tweet, but rather a traditional link to the image. Furthermore, images will not appear in the user photo gallery either.

Due to the growing popularity and higher demand for its use, Instagram just launched a PC version called Instagrille. This free desktop app provides all Instagram experience from the mobile to the PC.

All its mobile features such as effects, feeds, profile views, comments, and likes are available to PC users. Instagrille also allows the user to search, share, and download photos from Instagram directly into the computer.

The Federal Trade Commission has cleared Facebook's proposed purchase of mobile photo-sharing app Instagram.

FTC commissioners voted unanimously to close the agency's investigation into deal, once valued at $1 billion in cash and stock, the agency said in a statement. With Facebook's stock price at $19 a share, half of what it was when it went public, the deal is now worth about $747.1 million.