Build a Private Instagram Profile Lookup Tool Using Python

Introduction

Ankit Kumar Paswan

~2 min read · May 7, 2026 (Updated: May 7, 2026) · Free: Yes

Introduction

As a cybersecurity enthusiast and developer, I enjoy building tools that help me explore automation, OSINT concepts, and web technologies in practical ways. One of the projects I recently worked on was a Private Instagram Profile Lookup Tool designed for educational and research purposes.

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/ankit-711-root/Private-Insta-Profile-Lookup

The goal of this project was not to bypass Instagram security or access private user data illegally, but to understand how automation, request handling, and publicly accessible profile analysis work in real-world applications.

This project helped me improve my knowledge of:

Python scripting
Web request handling
Automation
Data parsing
CLI tool development
Cybersecurity research workflows

What the Tool Does

The tool is designed for viewing Private Instagram Profile posts by scraping the public profiles who are collaborated with that Private Profiles through automated requests and structured data extraction techniques.

Features of the Tool

Instagram username lookup
Profile metadata analysis
Fast automated requests
Clean command-line interface
️Lightweight and simple design
Organized output handling
Efficient request management

Technologies Used

The tool was developed using several technologies and libraries commonly used in cybersecurity and automation projects.

Core Technologies

Python
HTTP Requests
HTML (frontend)
Flask (backend)

Libraries & Tools

curl_cffi
requests

Why I Built This Project

I wanted to create a project that combined:

cybersecurity research
automation
OSINT-inspired workflows
Python scripting

Most beginner projects focus only on theory, but I wanted to build something practical that could improve my understanding of request handling, structured data extraction, and tool development.

The project also helped me understand: