There’s no such thing as safe sexting.
Snapchat was slapped by the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday for misleading users about its biggest draw — the ability to send photos and texts that automatically self-destruct within seconds.
“Is there any way to view an image after the time has expired? No, snaps disappear after the timer runs out,” Snapchat boasted as recently as October 2013.
According to regulators, photos sent on Snapchat lasted a heck of lot longer than 10 seconds.
The FTC said they could, in fact, be preserved using several methods, including third-party apps that allow recipients to download and save “snaps.”
Snapchat also settled charges that it misrepresented its data-collection practices and failed to adequately safeguard users’ information.
The unprofitable company avoided a monetary fine but has to subject itself to independent audits of its user privacy for the next 20 years. The agreement will be posted for public comment before the FTC finalizes it.
Snapchat’s now-accurate description of its app makes it sound like a run-of-the-mill messaging service.
“Snap a photo or a video … and send it to a friend,” reads the description in the Apple’s App Store. “Then the Snap disappears from the screen — unless they take a screenshot!”
Promises of secrecy made Snapchat, which rejected a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook, wildly popular, particularly with teen users.
The vanishing nature of photos gave rise to a seedier side as well, with users seeing it as a safer way to “sext” without getting caught.
Indeed, Snapchat promised users that they would be notified if someone took a screenshot of their texts or pictures.
But the promise of scandal-free sexting turned out to be a farce, with folks figuring out ways around the vanishing feature, the FTC said.
The regulator said the company knew about the issues and failed to take action.
“Users told the company about it … yet the company continued to make these unequivocal claims,” said Christpher Olsen, assistant director of privacy with the FTC.
Last year, Montreal police arrested 10 teenage boys on child-porn charges for passing around pictures of girls ages 13 to 15 in sexual poses or performing sexual acts.
The boys coaxed their female friends into sending the racy pics using Snapchat, which promised the images would disappear. Only, the teens found ways around those restrictions, police said.
Snapchat also promised users that it wouldn’t track or access their location information. Through February 2013, it collected users’ cell-based location and provided the data to an analytics-tracking service provider, the FTC said.
Moreover, Snapchat told users that the only personal data it collected was their phone numbers, when, in fact, it collected the names and phone numbers from their address books when users searched for friends on Snapchat, according to regulators.
Lastly, it allegedly failed to verify new users were who they said they were, allowing people to log-in using other people’s phone numbers and then receive and send texts under a false identity.
“While we were focused on building, some things didn’t get the attention they could have,” Snapchat said in a statement on its Web site. “One of those was being more precise with how we communicated with the Snapchat community.”