Snapchat settles false privacy claims in US

Snapchat, which lets users send each other messages that automatically disappear, has settled with the Federal Trade Commission. Users were misled about the confidentiality of messages.

A condition of the settlement is that Snapchat is no longer allowed to make misleading claims about privacy and that the company comes under increased surveillance. A third party will monitor Snapchat for the next 20 years. If Snapchat does not comply with the conditions, the company can still be fined.

Snapchat assured users not to save messages for recipients and that they would be deleted after viewing, but has now admitted that there were some caveats. For example, recipients could use external apps or take a screenshot of the received photo or video. Incidentally, senders are now notified when a recipient takes a screenshot, although taking the screenshot cannot be prevented.

Furthermore, Snapchat stored received videos unsecured on recipients’ devices, making it trivial to save the received ‘snap’. The Android version of the app also sent information about the location of the users, despite the fact that this was excluded in the privacy conditions. In addition, under iOS, the user’s address book was sent to the Snapchat server without notification. Since iOS 6, this is only possible if a user gives permission.

In addition, Snapchat failed to secure users’ data well enough, which made it possible for malicious parties to scrape Snapchat users’ usernames and passwords. Users are therefore at risk of spam, according to the FTC.