What is Instagram's 'Get to know me trend' and is it really dangerous?

It may look like harmless, innocent fun, but a viral Instagram "Get to know me" template which encourages users to share “a little about myself” could result in hackers having a “field day” with your online accounts, a cybersecurity expert has warned.

One template circulating on the app and seen by indy100, completed by at least 700 accounts, encourages users to post details including their age; height; shoe size; zodiac sign; whether they have children; whether they have tattoos; their phobias; favourite food, colour and drink; whether they have any pets; their relationship status and their taste in music.

If that sounds like an excessive amount of information to be dishing up to strangers on the internet, then maybe think twice about adding it to your Instagram Story.

Eliana Shiloh – a fashion, beauty and lifestyle influencer with more than 20,000 TikTok followers who also works as a cyber and strategic risk analyst at Deloitte – took to TikTok to outline the problems with the trend.

She said: “I literally started filling it out and then I was like, wait a damn minute... these are the answers to my security questions. The creepy creeps of the cyber web, they’re going to have a field day with this trend.

She added: “So literally, this is a PSA. If you did that trend, delete that s*** right now. Get rid of it, remove all proof of it from the internet.”

She went on to point out: "I don't know about you guys but I have had quite a few fake accounts made of me. This is fuelling the fire."

Her warning has since been viewed more than 1.5 million times, with hundreds of fellow TikTokers chiming in with their takes.

Many didn't believe her points, with one saying she was "reaching so hard."

Another added: "My answers have nothing to do with my security questions LMFAO."

A third said: "Y’all, if ur passwords or security contain that kind of info u should have stronger passwords."

Meanwhile, others backed Eliana's theory, with one commenting: "See this is why when I do these trends I never answer them seriously."

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