If you’re reading this article on your phone, chances are you probably have Snapchat. Snapchat allows users to send pictures that disappear after some time. Photos and videos taken with the app are called snaps. You can set a snap to be viewed for a time limit of 1 to 10 seconds and the Snapchat company claims that it’ll disappear after that.
Most smartphone operating systems are able to take screen captures. Snapchat tries to notify the person taking the picture if it determines that the screen has been captured. However, once a screen capture has been taken, the picture is automatically saved to photos on the receivers’ phone.
Abdullah Haj Ibrahim was one of the first people who downloaded Snapchat after it was released back in September 2011. “Snapchat is one of my favorite apps. I’ve been using it for over 6 years now. I like to use it for keeping in touch with my friends. Even though I use it all the time, I’m still careful with what pictures I send. When you drag a file into the trash bin on a computer, there is a way to undelete it. Snapchat works the same way. Even though it’s part of history after it has been viewed, doesn’t mean it’s 100 percent gone,” stated Ibrahim.
Snapchat pictures can be sent to authorities if they have a warrant to view those pictures. The administrators over at snapchat did admit that they had do hand over many pictures to the authorities. A great majority of snapchat users are not aware that snapchat does store all pictures.
Users still don’t understand how difficult is it to entirely erase something from the Internet. “It looks like it’s gone,” security expert Nico Sell told ABC News. “If you don’t understand the underlying technology of the Internet, and aren’t thinking about what is going on behind the scenes, it looks like it disappeared.”
Teenagers should be cautious and informed about these issues. Social media is never a good place to post private information. Most jobs check your social media before hiring you. You should be careful and choose wisely on what you upload and post.
