Users of the popular photo and video sharing app Snapchat reacted with fury following the announcement that the firm could now save up to 700 million messages sent per year.
Snapchat admitted that they are no longer a temporary saving app because data in their server are now being saved. It has also changed its term and conditions stating that all the uploaded videos and photos posted via their app are company owned.
Garnering furious reactions from its users, the app released a statement assuring its loyal users that this will create no change. "There's been some confusion about the updated Privacy Police and Terms of Service we rolled out last week," a clarification statement from the company's blog post.
"We never want to create any misunderstanding over our commitment to protecting your privacy. The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update. Our Privacy Policy continues to say - as it did before - that those messages 'are automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired. Of course, a recipient can always screenshot or save your Snaps or Chats. But the important point is that Snapchat is not - and never has been - stockpiling your private Snaps or Chats. And because we continue to delete them from our servers as soon as they're read, we could not - and do not - share them with advertisers or business partners."
The company further added that the changes involved making the statements more straightforward, adding in-app purchases that permits deleted snaps to be viewed again and clarifying information that are publicly shared.
Snapchat is a video messaging app that allows capturing photos, recording videos, adding text and emoticons and sending those to a list of viewers or friends. These data will self-destruct after users have set a time limit how long these can be viewed by their recipients, unless receiver gets a screenshot.
