Snapchat’s core feature is what made it so popular in a very short amount of time, it’s an ephemeral messaging service, which promises users that the snaps that they send each other automatically disappear after a few seconds. Now that might be true from a user-to-user standpoint, the recipient of the snap can’t view it again unless they pay for it or take a picture of the screen with another device, but when it comes to online services that are a multitude of privacy concerns that need to be addressed, and Snapchat’s new privacy policy isn’t going to sit too well with privacy advocates.
Snapchat has made some changes to its privacy policy essentially giving itself the right to use and distribute all photos that are sent through the ephemeral messaging application.
When signing up for a Snapchat account and agreeing to its privacy policy, which we all know nobody reads, users give Snapchat the right to “host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).”
It’s pretty easy to understand the rights users are handing over when the agree to use Snapchat, a service that has been built on the promises that the snaps sent are automatically deleted after a few seconds. It goes to show that the service has made a big change in the way it handles user privacy.
The change in policy highlights Live Story, which is a curated feed of user content associated with a popular event, but they’re not limited to just one feature as Snapchat points out that it has the right to distribute content through all channels “now known or later developed.”