Snapchat is often considered a safe haven of privacy in a sea of social media where most, if not all, of one’s activity is recorded and made public. Messages in the form of chats or snaps (pictures and videos), stories (a snap that can be viewed many times by anyone who is included on one’s story list) disappear right as the chat is opened or after 24 hours. The features make it easy to feel like one is in control of what they send out and even easier to feel fine about skimming the privacy policy (I’m guilty of this too, but frankly who isn’t?). I’ve taken the liberty of going through Snapchat, or rather the parent company, Snap Inc.’s, privacy policy to compile the main points about their collection, use, and sharing of your data and some things to be cautious about.

Snap Inc.’s privacy policy is fairly transparent and user friendly, so if you want the full rundown of their policies in their language, feel free to check it out here: https://www.snap.com/en-US/privacy/privacy-policy

With that said, it was fairly easy to determine what they do with our information. 

Most of the information they collect on an individual, whether it be provided directly by the individual, obtained by monitoring the individual, or by a third party, is used to improve the security and make the service curated toward the user. For example, Snap Inc. monitors location, interactions with ads, friends, and other features of the app, aspects of one’s device like its photos, apps, contact book, and more. This information personalizes the app and provides services like connecting and sharing with friends more easily. Additionally, one’s information plays a big part in keeping their account secure from unauthorized or illegal activity.

Long story short, most of the information that Snap Inc. collects is to improve the quality of the users experience.

However, that isn’t the whole story. First and foremost, Snap shares personal information with advertising agencies. This means that advertisers have certain data points about each individual that they can use to target certain groups of people. For the most part, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but target advertising using big data can lead to some pretty troublesome outcomes. For example, if Snap creates a certain persona for an individual, this individual will attract only certain types of ads and, therefore, will only see what certain businesses or organizations want them to see. Many viewed this as a problem during the 2016 election when the trump campaign targeted black voters using “dark posts,” which McKenzie Funk describes as “a newsfeed message seen by no one aside from the users being targeted” in an article she wrote for The New York Times. She concluded that this form of ad targeting enabled “Mr. Trump’s digital team [to] use dark posts to serve different ads to different potential voters, aiming to push the exact right buttons for the exact right people at the exact right times.” In an interview I conducted with an 18 year old male and an avid user of Snapchat, he claimed that he “do[es]n’t really care” (see below for the whole interview). While it is common, especially for teenagers, to be unperturbed by a company’s data on them, it may be important to consider the potential dangers that target ads can present the whole of society when giving information to social media companies.

Additionally, Snap Inc. reserves the right to use data in any case involving valid legal behavior or investigating misconduct in use of the app. What’s more, Snap will hold on to information even after an account has been deleted. So, if you find yourself in trouble, deleting the app will only get you so far.

One last thing to watch out for is using third parties in the app. There are many third parties that partner with Snap, including mini games within the app, that are not bound by the same privacy contract that Snap Inc. is. What they do with the data they collect on users can be different for each third party, but it’s best to stay safe and not give any personal information to these third parties or, better yet, read their privacy policies beforehand.

While Snap Inc is a fairly reliable social media company, people should know what they are signing up for.

Interview with 18 yr old:

Audio:

Transcript:

Do you have the Snapchat app?

I do have the Snapchat app I have been using it since seventh eighth grade

Are you aware of the extent of the information that they have on you?

I am pretty aware; I’ve heard about how Snapchat uses information and we don’t exactly know where or how that’s being used.

Do you trust Snap with your data?

I trust nap with my data but also I don’t think Snapchat has anything too personal of mine so I don’t really care.

How would you feel to know that snap shares information with third parties, primarily for ad targeting?

I don’t really care and I like Snapchat

Works Cited

Funk, Mckenzie. “Cambridge Analytica and the Secret Agenda of a Facebook Quiz.” The New York Times, The New York              Times, 19 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/cambridge-analytica-facebook-quiz.html.