This post is written due to the sheer number of people who are unaware of the instagram reels tracking parameter igsh and accidentally leak their personal information on discord.

While it is fun to share your instagram reels on soical media, you should be aware that instagram has a tracking parameter called igsh that can leak your personal information if you are not careful.

When you share an instagram reel via app, the link will look like this:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/123456/?igsh=ABCDEFG

When other people click on the link, Instagram will say “[IG username] shared this reel with you” and show your profile picture. This is because the igsh parameter is used to track who shared the link.

The igsh parameter does not contain any sensitive information (as it appears to be a hash) to others, but if you registered your Instagram account with your real name… well, you are basically telling everyone to doxx you. welcome to the internet.

How to avoid this⌗

To avoid sharing more information than you intended, simply remove the igsh parameter from the link before sharing it on discord (or any other social media platform).

https://www.instagram.com/reel/123456/ <-- remove the "?igsh=ABCDEFG".

As of writing, Instagram considers this as a feature and there is no way to disable it. So be careful when sharing your instagram reels on social media!