The Public Creator Dilemma: How to Protect Your Privacy
If you are a creator, influencer, coach, or small business, making your account private is not an option—you need public discoverability for the Explore page, Reels tab, and search engines. However, you might not want family members, clients, exes, or competitors tracking who you follow.
Since Meta does not provide a single toggle to hide following lists on public profiles, here are the four proven 2026 workarounds top creators and executives use to solve this problem.
Workaround 1: The "Save & Bookmark" Method (100% Private)
Did you know that your Saved Collections on Instagram are completely confidential? No one—neither your followers nor the account owners—can see who or what you save into private collections.
How to follow content without hitting "Follow":
- When you find an account whose content you want to track, open one of their recent posts.
- Tap the Bookmark icon beneath the post.
- Tap Save to collection and create a dedicated private folder (e.g. "Inspiration", "Competitors", or "Favorites").
- Whenever you want to see what they are up to, simply open your profile, tap the hamburger menu (≡), and tap Saved.
By utilizing Saved Collections or browser bookmarks, you can track dozens of accounts without a single one appearing on your public Following list.
Workaround 2: The Dual-Account Architecture (Creator Standard)
Almost all major social media personalities, brand executives, and public figures operate two accounts:
Public Brand / Creator Profile
- • Public account type for full algorithmic reach
- • Following count kept minimal (0 to 10 industry peers or partners)
- • Zero personal friends, family, or sensitive interests followed
- • Zero risk of exposing personal connections
Private Consumer Profile
- • 100% Private Account mode enabled
- • Generic handle or initials, no public selfie as avatar
- • Contacts syncing disabled in Accounts Center
- • Follow all your personal friends, private hobbies, and news
Instagram allows you to easily switch between up to 5 logged-in accounts on the same phone by simply double-tapping your profile icon in the bottom-right corner.
Workaround 3: Restrict vs. Block Specific Competitors
If your privacy concern stems from one or two specific individuals (e.g. an ex-partner, a jealous competitor, or an overbearing acquaintance), you don't need to lock down your entire profile for everyone:
- Block them directly: Go to their profile > tap three dots (...) > tap Block. They cannot see your followers, following, or profile.
- Soft-block them: Block them and immediately unblock them. This forces them to unfollow you without triggering any notification.
- Restrict them: If blocking is too aggressive, Restrict mode prevents them from knowing when you are active and silos their communication into requests.
Workaround 4: Disable "Similar Account Suggestions"
When people inspect who you follow, they often get recommendations based on your network. To stop Instagram from suggesting you to people in your network:
- Open instagram.com in a desktop web browser (this setting is only accessible on web).
- Click on your profile picture > tap Edit Profile.
- Scroll to the bottom to find "Show account suggestions on profiles".
- Uncheck this checkbox and click Submit.
How to Use the Conceal Public Instagram Following
Replace Following with Saved Collections
Instead of tapping "Follow", save their posts into private Collections. You track their content without appearing on your Following list.
Deploy a Consumer Burner Account
Keep your public profile with 0-5 brand followings. Follow friends, family, and niche interests on a separate unlinked personal account.
Restrict High-Risk Competitors
Restrict accounts you suspect of scraping your network. This cuts off activity signals and limits interaction pathways.