When Snapchat first got popular, it was because it allowed you to send photos that disappeared after a short time. Users believed, because Snapchat said so, that all the data they sent via Snapchat was ephemeral, and not stored anywhere. But the auto-erase feature of Snapchat wasn’t perfect, and now the company has had to make a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about this failure.
It was actually quite easy, via third party apps and tricks, for users to save the supposedly ‘ephemeral’ messages, the FTC found. Users should not have felt as safe as they were led to believe about using the app. On top of this, it emerged that Snapchat was taking user data like location and contacts.
Snapchat’s error was making big claims for privacy, but not creating secure enough systems to make them true. Hackers and researchers were able to get data that should have been deleted from devices when connecting them to computers.
Since its beginnings, Snapchat has changed how it describes itself. ‘Screenshotting’ is now accepted practice, and users are aware that it is possible. However, the FCC decided that as it originally marketed itself with privacy and security as key features, Snapchat should have kept those promises. It faces 20 years of monitoring by an ‘independent privacy professional’.
Source: Engadget
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