Snapchat settles with FTC after lying to users about privacy

Posted May 10, 2014 · May 10, 2014

After it was uncovered that Snapchat was being dishonest about to their users about privacy, they have now entered into a consent decree with the FTC addressing concerns over the companies privacy policy.

Snapchat went through a huge data breach last year exposing 4.6 million phone numbers and user names. According to the FTC, the data breach contradicted promises made by Snapchat concerning security.

Evan Spiegal, a co-founder of Snapchat has also tried to be upfront about the fact that Snapchat pictures are rather easy to capture and save, however the companies privacy policy did not necessarily make that clear. Here’s what Snapchat had to say concerning the matter:

When we started building Snapchat, we were focused on developing a unique, fast, and fun way to communicate with photos. We learned a lot during those early days. One of the ways we learned was by making mistakes, acknowledging them, and fixing them.

While we were focused on building, some things didn’t get the attention they could have. One of those was being more precise with how we communicated with the Snapchat community. This morning we entered into a consent decree with the FTC that addresses concerns raised by the commission. Even before today’s consent decree was announced, we had resolved most of those concerns over the past year by improving the wording of our privacy policy, app description, and in-app just-in-time notifications. And we continue to invest heavily in security and countermeasures to prevent abuse.

We are devoted to promoting user privacy and giving Snapchatters control over how and with whom they communicate. That’s something we’ve always taken seriously, and always will.

The FTC settlement prohibits Snapchat from “misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of users’ information.” Snapchat will also have to re-draft their privacy policy, and undergo independent monitoring for the next 20 years.

Source: TechCrunch

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