Snapchat, an app that has seen great strides in usage ever since its release in 2013, has often been scrutinized for its sometimes disingenuous privacy policies. The basic premise of the app is this: users are allowed to send photos and videos that are only viewable once or twice, which then disappear from cyberspace. Any recipients who may screenshot sent content are recognized and reported back to the sender (so that social repercussions are completely up to one’s discretions).⠀

However, things are not always so clear cut. There is a constant sphere of controversy around the purported security and transparency of the app, as well as its susceptibility to more advanced systems or entities that could easily access and retrieve information from its database (e.g. the NSA). Third-party applications have long been put into use, which could allow users to screenshot or record any privately sent photo or video without alerting the app, and therefore, the sender of such content being taken.⠀

When one peruses the Privacy Policy, as well as the Terms of Services, it’s alarming how many bells can go off. Snapchat can not only allegedly retain your media after deletion (for cases of criminal/forensic investigation, they assure the public), but also “store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, exhibit, and publicly display that [your] content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed)” (Source: Snapchat).⠀

In more specific focus to their “Story” feature, where users can upload a re-playable photo or video that is collaged to their profile for up to 24 hours, Snapchat offers what seems to be another grim and dubious statement: “To the extent it is necessary, you also grant Snapchat and our business partners the unrestricted, worldwide, perpetual right and license to use your name, likeness, and voice in any and all media and distribution channels (now known or later developed) in connection with any Live Story or other crowd-sourced content you create, upload, post, send, or appear in” (Source: Snapchat). To add insult to injury, independent app studies have discovered that Snapchat continuously operates the front and back camera even when a user is simply accessing contacts or watching stories, or any activity other than actual taking a picture and video.⠀⠀⠀

So how should users react to these findings? For most, the teenage user base in particular, will most likely give little to no notice. Snapchat sends more than 1 billion photos per day, by all latest metrics, and a majority of those are sent by millennials and their teenage younger siblings. Innocuous surveillance has been a growing topic ever since the NSA-Snowden-scandal, but the prospects of having personal information, specifically sensitive photos, accessed and manipulated by an app that promises users safe and finite, yet fun communication methods seems just as scary as remote wiretapping of any and every electronic device. Yet the grab-and-go culture of fast-paced living essentially sets a precedent in which nearly no one truly takes the time to step back, take a breath, and actually look at what they are agreeing to.⠀⠀⠀

The most matter-of-factly may argue that users essentially give up all claims to privacy the moment the content is sent from their devices. And others will cite negligence, in that as long as users agreed to the Terms and Conditions (and in many cases, without reading them) they have no right to complain about how Snapchat may treat their content. Additionally, there’s the classic argument of “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”. All of these arguments are subjective, and bring their own valid (if sparse) points. As it seems with any controversial topic, there is never one solution that pleases everyone. And when this is applied to something as befuddlingly personal as the basic right to privacy, it truly questions what sort of society we have built where we cannot guarantee such a simple assurance.⠀

So, what is the bottom line? Are users doomed to ambiguously gray privacy privileges to no privileges whatsoever, to simply quitting services such as these outright? Snapchat, which released these updated documents only last month, responded to criticism and concerns with important clarifications. They state that “Our privacy policy continues to say — as it did before — that messages are automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired” (Source: Snapchat).⠀

“Snapchat is not—and never has been—stockpiling your private snaps or chats.”