Over the last year Snapchat has evolved from a system that allows users to communicate through photos that self-destruct after 10 seconds, to a full on chat messaging system that flashed pictures and videos for 10 seconds at a time. Now the social sharing app, which has been the target of numerous security hacks, is offering a new service: Payment transfers between users’ bank accounts. [More]
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Secure Messaging Scorecard Shows Just How Unprotected Your Online Chats Are
By 11.5.14
The Internet is a place where hundreds of millions of people go to write things they wouldn’t — or can’t — say in public, and many of the most private and secretive communications occur via the many instant messaging services available to consumers. But what you may not realize when sharing your personal thoughts (and images) with someone online is that the level of privacy and security on these services varies wildly from one to the next. [More]
Snapchat Photos Stolen, Company Blames Users Of Third-Party Apps
By 10.10.14
Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to communicate through photos that self-destruct after ten seconds. Taking advantage of this feature, many people use it to take photos of their private parts. However, there are third-party apps that you can use to sign in to Snapchat, then send and receive files. [More]
Facebook Testing Self-Destructing Status Updates
By 9.11.14
Because your 493 Facebook friends likely won’t care in 50 years into the future (or honestly, 50 seconds from now) that you’re out grabbing fro-yo with your besties, Facebook is testing an option that would allow users to set a time limit on how long those updates appear on your timeline. [More]
Facebook Accidentally Launches Snapchat Rival App Slingshot Early, Yanks It
By 6.10.14
Seems like someone over at Facebook had an itchy trigger finger, as the social media site released a new Snapchat rival photo service yesterday that it didn’t mean to show to the public yet. It’s since been pulled, and Facebook admits that it was a bit premature. [More]
Snapchat Settles Federal Charges It Misled Users About Privacy
By 5.8.14
One of the reasons people use the Snapchat messaging app, especially for messages that one may not want to have a permanent record of, is that those texts and photos supposedly disappear shortly after being received by another user.
But the Federal Trade Commission accused the service of not only over-promising and under-delivering on this notion of vanishing messages, but that it also deceived users about the amount of personal data it collected. [More]
Snapchat Hack Attack Hitting Users With Spam Photos Of Delicious, Frothy Smoothies
By 2.12.14
While there’s no ideal way to get spammed, and being hacked is an unpleasant experience overall, the latest attack on Snapchat looks kind of delicious. Users are reporting receiving photos of tasty smoothies with a spammy link from their friends, who are definitely not sending said drinkalicious photos. [More]
Snapchat Figures It’s Best To Prove Users Are Actually Human With New Security Update
By 1.22.14
Now that Snapchat has had its toes firmly dipped in the pool of potential security threats, it seems the company has realized it might be best to stem the tide of spambots posing as real users on the photo-sharing service. [More]
Snapchat: That Spam Avalanche In Your Feed Is Because We’re So Popular, Obviously
By 1.13.14
Have you had a slew of new “friend” requests in your Snapchat queue? Accepting any of those might lead to a spam avalanche in your feed, as many users have been piping up about a recent wellspring of spammy spammers hitting the photo service. But it’s not because of any recent username leaks, at least according to Snapchat. [More]
Snapchat Finally Uses The Word “Sorry,” Releases Updated App In Wake Of Hack
By 1.9.14
We’re not sure if that fact that Snapchat used the word “sorry” in a post today means that perhaps “going backwards” by apologizing isn’t quite the death sentence the company’s CEO said it was, or if it just means, sorry. The company posted the word within a blog post announcing an updated version of the app, one week after it acknowledged a hack had happened. [More]
Snapchat CEO Not Really Into Idea Of Apologizing For Hack That Leaked Millions Of Phone Numbers
January 3, 2014
While Snapchat might be working on a fix to the app that allowed phone numbers and user names for 4.6 million users to be leaked online, the CEO of the company doesn’t exactly feel like an apology is in order. “[I]n a business like this if you spend your time looking backwards, you’re just gonna kill yourself,” CEO Evan Spiegel explained on NBC’s Today on Friday morning. [via Re/code] [More]
Snapchat Says It’ll Release More Secure Version Of App In Wake Of Hack
By 1.3.14
This week many Snapchat users were likely shocked to found out that 4.6 million usernames and the phone numbers connected to them were leaked online by a group of hackers. In response to the hack, Snapchat says now that it will release an updated version of its app that will allow users to opt out of the “Find Friends” feature that was exploited. [More]
Report: 4.6 Million Snapchat Phone Numbers And Usernames Leaked Online
By 1.2.14
While many Snapchat users are used to nudity, many of them only thought they were exposed for the 10 or so seconds that late-night selfie was on their recipient’s screen. But a new report says the phone numbers and usernames associated with more than 4.6 million Snapchatters in North America were leaked and posted online. [More]
