A more sophisticated version of the myth says that even if the posts are private, their thumbnails or URLs might be pre-loaded in the browser’s tab. The claim is that you can find a JSON file containing image links.

The instructions were weirdly simple. Open Instagram in a browser. Go to the private profile. Right-click → Inspect Element. Search for a line of code that said “visibility: hidden” or “display: none” inside a div class labeled _a9zr . Delete it.