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Oh Snap

By Jordan Valinsky 5/20 1:42pm

Oh Snap

Totally, totally innocent... or is it?

Activist Group Whines to the FTC For You About Snapchat’s Not-So-Deleted Photos

Remember that nearly life-ending revelation that the photos sent from Android devices on Snapchat don’t disappear? As in, they sit in some not-so-discreet folder called “RECEIVED_IMAGES_SNAPS,” where they’re just waiting to be shown to the world. Well, a privacy watchdog is taking action for you by filing a complaint with the government in an effort to stop the nuisance.

On Friday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The 8-page document lambastes the California-based app for its “deceptive business practices,” since it claims the photos are deleted when in many cases they are not. In Snapchat’s privacy statement, it does hedge that it “cannot guarantee that the message contents will be deleted in every case.” Read More

By Jordan Valinsky 5/09 9:46am

Oh Snap

Very bad news. (Photo: Digital Trends)

Some Jerk Has Figured Out a Way to Recover Your ‘Deleted’ Snapchat Photos

Snapchat is supposed to be a safe space. A place where you can freely sext in peace without fearing repercussions from your significant others or family. Now that peace-of-mind has been thoroughly destroyed by a Utah security firm who say they have figured out a way to extract the allegedly dissolved pictures from Android phones.

Richard Hickman, a digital forensics examiner, discovered that the popular app installs a folder called “RECEIVED_IMAGES_SNAPS,” where the pictures–you guessed it–are stored. Similar to a magical cloak, the app affixes an extension called “.NOMEDIA” to the pictures, which can take hours to find depending on how much data is on your phone. He cracked the code of making the pictures viewable by altering the extension. Read More

By Jordan Valinsky 4/18 11:08am

Oh Snap

Not us. (Photo: Naked Security)

Snapchat Users Annoyed by Sexts—When They Come from Naked Spammers

Welcome to the big leagues, Snapchat! This week the photo-sharing app experienced a startup Bar Mitzvah, of sorts, when it was inundated with its first major spam attack.

Unsuspecting users received an explicit snap from someone calling herself named “Honey.Crush9,” inviting them to a sexy Skype conversation. Anyone foolish enough to take the bait ended up with—surprise, surprise!—malware.  Read More

By Jordan Valinsky 4/16 11:39am

Oh Snap

Saddest sentence ever. (Photo: Hashgram)

Snapchat CEO Loves the Ephemeral Nature of Your Dick Pics

Welp, guess we’ve been using Snapchat all wrong. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel spoke this morning at AllThingsD’s Dive Into Mobile conference, where he that argued his creation “isn’t a great a tool for sexting” and stated that the future of apps should be ephemeral.

Mr. Spiegel said more than 150 million pictures are uploaded every day to Snapchat by people aged 13 to 25. Although he noted that “some” of its users are probably naked, usage dips after 11 p.m., when he assumes when sexts are sent. (We hope by that time people already have sealed the deal). Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 4:30pm

Oh Snap

Very bad news. (Photo: Digital Trends)

Snapchat CEO Warns Ads May Soon Interrupt Your Sexts

This is just your regularly scheduled friendly reminder that every free service you love will eventually by deluged with ads. Today, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel stopped by CNBC, an appearance that no doubt means many teens across America will soon be receiving a flurry of unwanted messages from their parents.

Guess what Mr. Spiegel is, like, totally psyched about these days? Advertising. Aren’t you excited about advertising? Everybody loves advertising: Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 12/14/12 1:45pm

Oh Snap

photo (7)

Sext in Motion: Snapchat Is Now the Snapchat for Video

It seems like just 18 hours ago, we were begging some industrious app developer to get at us with a pitch for “the Snapchat for video,” that would let you send snippets of film with a self-destruct button. From that clamoring pit of public demand arose Vidburn, a video sharing app built for fun by the folks at Lamplighter Games at a Hack Day. “We had so many laughs playing with it afterwards that we spent a week cleaning it up for primetime. It was just submitted to Apple today so it should be live in about a week,” Lamplighter cofounder Kris Minkstein told us by email, offering to send a TestFlight.

But Vidburn may arrive at the App Store DOA because moments ago Snapchat just released an update that lets you send videos for 10 seconds or less. “We’ve been planning on today for a little while,” cofounder Evan Spiegel told Betabeat by phone, shrugging off questions about the timing of the release.
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By Kelly Faircloth 12/10/12 6:34pm

Oh Snap

Nice filters ya got there.

Twitter Is Getting Photo Filters, Powered By New York’s Own Aviary

The torn-asunder relationship between Twitter and Facebook has reached its scorched-earth, Wuthering Heights-like final stages. Having fallen into a hurried marriage with Facebook, Instagram has cut ties with Twitter, yanking all photos from your Twitter feed (and presumably burning any incriminating love letters).

Now Twitter is moving on. Today the company announced the advent of a suite of tools blatantly meant to replace the functionality lent by Instagram: Read More