Millions of teenagers have adopted a smartphone app which has been touted as a way of safely “sexting” and sharing naked pictures. But is it really a safe way to share intimate photographs of yourself?
Snapchat, which is available for both iPhone and Android devices, describes how senders can control how long a message or picture can be seen for, before it expires after a maximum of 10 seconds:
Snapchat is the fastest way to share a moment with friends.
You control how long your friends can view your message –
simply set the timer up to ten seconds and send.They’ll have that long to view your message and then it disappears forever. We’ll let you know if they take a screenshot!
Snapchat timerIt sounds like a neat solution, if the picture is only visible for 10 seconds – that reduces the opportunity for others to forward it around the school campus, or post it for all to see on Facebook.
But the truth is that anyone can take a screenshot of their device (if they are nimble fingered enough) and create their own copy of the image…
Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.
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