4 Ways Snap Maps Are a Threat to Your Privacy and Security
Last week, the Snapchat app was updated with Snap Maps, allowing users to check out Snaps of events, news, and more from around the world and share their location with friends on the app.
However, privacy advocates and media aren’t thrilled about the feature due to the privacy and security concerns surrounding Snap Map.
Snapchat is a popular photo-sharing app among teenagers, and this update has sparked a need to teach children and adults about Internet privacy and the implications of public location sharing.
Before we go further, the Snap Map only shares location among mutual friends. This means that the people following each other will see each other’s locations. However, it will show your location every time you submit Snaps to Our Story or open the app.
How is Snap Map a Threat to Privacy?
Snap Map tracks and updates your location every time you open Snapchat. This is understandable if you want to share your Snaps to Our Story about a public event, but you wouldn’t want your friends to know where you are all the time.
Snapchat states that location data is deleted after a short period, but they fail to mention for how long. If a user doesn’t open the app for more than 8 hours, their location disappears from the Snap Map.
Other users can see when and where your last location was updated, giving a rough idea of your whereabouts most of the time.
Given that there is an option to share your location with all your friends on Snapchat, it is crucial to educate children about privacy. Without this understanding, young users may inadvertently share their location with inappropriate individuals.
The Snap Map location feature continuously shares your location with all your friends or mutual friends, unless disabled. However, users have the option to enable ‘Ghost Mode’ to view the map without updating their location.
The Snap Map can be a space for stalkers and other anti-social individuals to find a vulnerable target and act on their nefarious intentions. By simply using the latest Snap Map feature on the Snapchat app, they can easily accomplish this. If you want to prevent Snapchat from tracking your location, the best option is to go to the ‘App Permissions’ window in the device settings and turn off the Location permission.
As Fred Humiston, the author behind Twothirds.us, I focus on providing practical and easy-to-follow guides and solutions for a variety of technical issues that people commonly face.
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