A couple days ago I was looking through the apps on my phone’s homescreen, and I noticed that Instagram had installed itself.
This was an understandably alarming development. At first I wasn’t sure what to do–delete the app immediately and hope it wasn’t a virus? That probably would’ve been the safest move, but I chose to open it instead. When I did, I got this screen:
Pretty standard login screen to be greeted with the first time you open an app you’ve downloaded–except for how I didn’t download this app.
Later on, I decided to search my phone for the app–just for kicks, and to see what happened. Except apparently I didn’t have it?
I still have no idea why this happened, but whatever the cause, it’s a pretty unsettling example of software constructing my experience as a user, definitely without my consent.