Snapchat responds to complaints about updated privacy policy
Social media start-up Snapchat is known for its disappearing or ephemeral video clips.
In response to a backlash over its updated privacy policy, Snapchat tried to reassure users that it’s not storing their communications any differently than before -- even though their terms of service agreement allows them to.
“The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update,” the Venice company said in a blog post published Sunday.
The social media start-up, which some value at $16 billion, is known for its disappearing or ephemeral video clips.
When Snapchat released new language in its Terms of Service last week, many were worried and outraged because it suggested the company could store and use content generated by its user base at will.
The current terms of service, which all users have to agree to, includes this line: “You grant Snapchat a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license 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).”
In reality, Snapchat said, it wasn’t ever immediately deleting all content on the platform with the exception of its one-on-one chats. That’s because it had to keep content for the app’s My Story, Replay and Live Stories features, which allows users to view content again or have it promoted by the company, requiring clips to be stored on the company’s servers longer -- typically 24 hours.
The company likes to remind users that people can also take screenshots of your content, or do it the old-fashioned way with a camera.
“The same common sense that applies to the Internet at large applies to Snapchat as well: Don’t send messages that you wouldn’t want someone to save or share,” the company’s privacy policy states.
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Snapchat recently reached 5 billion daily video views. Between 10 and 20 million people watch their Live Stories every day. And the company said 60% of smartphone owners ages 13 to 34 are daily users of the app.
Follow @dhpierson on Twitter for tech news.
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