Snapchat is still reeling from the leak of hundreds of thousands of private photos. The worst part of the emerging scandal is that this might have had nothing to do with Snapchat at all, according to ABC News.
Snapchat has become popular, especially among teenagers, because it allows users to share pictures briefly before they supposedly disappear. After a user-set time limit of up to ten seconds, any photos are removed from the phone and from Snapchat’s servers.
There are a number of third-party services that can save Snapchat photos, and it appears to be from one of these sites that these photos were taken. A large portion are nude photos and, given the site’s userbase, underage.
These third-party apps can save photos automatically without the user being aware of it.
The stolen photos were first posted on a fake site called viralpop.com. When that was taken down, the photos were posted on 4chan.
“Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security," a Snapchat statement said. "We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google (News - Alert) Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting dozens of these removed."
Aaron Kwittken, writing in Forbes, thought the statement was evasive.
“Snapchat didn’t say that third party app users were victimized. These people are their users, many of whom are minors. If Snapchat is identifying their users as the victims, where’s the transparency and communication that will help them make better decisions going forward? Where’s the compassion for their victims? More importantly, where’s Evan Spiegel?” he wrote.
Kwittken was referring to the CEO of the Los Angeles-based company. He thought that the scandal was an opportunity for transparency, with Spiegel personally apologizing instead of the company sending an anonymous, unsigned “statement.”
Earlier this year, Snapchat was sued by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly deceiving users about its disappearing messages. The company later settled with the FTC (News - Alert).
Regardless of who’s actually responsible, the incident serves as an important reminder to pay attention to who’s handling important data. Many people are relying on third-party services to handle sensitive data: their emails, their financial records and their documents. Their data is only as secure as the weakest points on these servers.
It’s also an important reminder for parents to keeps as close of an eye as possible on what their kids are doing online and to intervene if they’re doing anything they might seriously regret later on. Young people might be adept at new technology but still might not perceive some of the risks of their behavior, especially online.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
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