On SnapChat

Guest blogger @jtl999

Hey everyone,

Our friend @jtl999 has been researching all the ins and outs of this popular app, and we felt we should share what we have learned in effort to make sure you all stay safe!

SnapChat: You take a picture, send it to a friend, and the picture disappears in ten seconds – gone forever… or so you thought.  This is how SnapChat really works…

First you take a picture. It could be anything. You might think it is sent directly to your friend, but first it is sent to a server in Phoenix, Arizona.  This is the important part. The team behind these servers has not disclosed what they do with the images after you press send. The pictures might be erased, OR they might be stored (meaning they could be hacked by strangers). At this point we just don’t know.

When your friend checks SnapChat the app sends a message to these servers saying, “Hey, anything new?” Of course it is more complicated than that, but that’s a simplified version.   Your friend opens the message with the picture and the app starts a countdown timer, which will result in the picture being erased. DO NOT be fooled by this! 

Does that ghost look trustworthy to you?

First of all, the app can easily be hacked to have unlimited time meaning that the picture is never destroyed. This is the weakest link in the chain and the easiest to exploit. Hacked versions of SnapChat have been showing up on YouTube more and more. These hacks can supposedly save and send images to and from people, from your photo feed, and even wind up as automatic posts on your Facebook (yikes).  Even without fancy hacking skills, people can easily take a screenshot of the picture. SnapChat has tried to counter people saving the images by detecting when you press the screenshot button on your phone. Unfortunately that’s not enough. Even without these hacked versions of SnapChat copying the images is as easy as copying and pasting a file. No computer required! You can also use programs such as Activator and Tasker to change the volume buttons to take a screenshot, which is not detected because you are using a different button. Of course, someone with no hacking ability at all could just take a picture of the screen with a camera.  So you see, there is no way to ensure that your pictures are only going to last 10 seconds.

There is a good rule of thumb – “Don’t send anyone any picture you wouldn’t want your grandma to see.”  Hopefully that is un-hackable advice.

Do you guys use SnapChat? Have any stories?