Your Data's Safe With Us

Every day, I receive questions from influencers who are concerned about connecting their social media accounts to the Obviously platform. This makes complete sense. Your Instagram account is your identity as an influencer, so of course you want to protect it. There are so many nasty hackers out there intent on using your personal information for their own gain. Fortunately, Obviously isn’t one of them. We are 100% committed to your security, and we have a ton of safety measure in place to help protect it. You can check out our privacy policy to get the nitty-gritty on what data we collect and how we use it, but sometimes all that legal jargon can be confusing (and, um, boring.)

So here are the most common questions I get about Obviously’s privacy policy and what we are doing to protect you:

Does registering for Obviously expose me to hackers?

No! I know it can be anxiety-inducing to register for anything with your Instagram password, but I promise you our registration process is completely safe. We don’t even save your password! We ask you to do this because it’s the best (most secure) way for us to ensure that the person registering for our platform is the actual owner of the account. Far from opening yourself up to hackers, our registration process helps prevent hackers from creating fraudulent profiles on our system.

What data do you collect?

We collect a several different types of data to help us work with you most efficiently. First, there’s identifying data: things like your name, age, gender, and sexual orientation (if you choose to share them.) We also get your contact info such as email address and phone number in case we need to get in touch. There’s also a limited amount of financial information, such as your PayPal account (so we can pay you, duh.) Other information includes technical data, like what browser you’re using, your location, and your communication preferences.

We also collect aggregate data. This is data that isn’t personal to you, and doesn’t identify you, but tells us something about our site as a whole. For example, if we wanted to know “What percentage of Obviously users apply for a project each day?” this would be a piece of aggregate data.

How do you use my data?

The number one way we use your data is to show you off to brands for potential collaborations. The information we collect creates a portrait of you as a person which, along with your social media account, helps the brand determine if you’re a good fit for their project. We never sell your data or use it in any way outside the scope of influencer marketing.

What should I do if my account is hacked?

Don’t panic! Instagram has a policy in place to help you recover your account. First go to “forgot password” on the log-in page, then click on “need more help.” Here, you can put in the information about your account being hacked, so they can send you a security code. You’ll have to email them a photo of yourself holding the written security code on a piece of paper. The process is a little convoluted and may take a couple days, but you’ll get everything restored.

Unfortunately, Obviously isn’t affiliated with Instagram, so we can’t help you recover your account. But do let us know if you’ve been hacked, so we can temporarily deactivate your profile. Which brings us to…

What happens to my Obviously profile if my account is hacked?

Nothing, really. Just let us know what’s happened, so we can deactivate it until you recover your account. That way, brands won’t see any weirdness that goes down while someone else is running your Instagram. After you’re up and running again, we’ll reactivate your account.

Now that you know the basics of our privacy policy, you can feel confident that Obviously is completely safe and secure. We’re also completely GDPR compliant. And completely awesome, obviously.

Have more questions? Leave them in the comments and I’ll get right back to you!