Students Question Snapchat’s Safety
February 13, 2014
After the hacking of the application, some question its privacy
Unlike text messages, which are permanent, users can send videos via Snapchat, which will disappear after just a few seconds.
GRAPHIC BY CLAIRE FLETCHER AND MANISHA RATAKONDA
For some Hockaday girls, this information is alienating, but it may not affect their use of the app.
This security breach showed the vulnerable nature of the application, as hackers were able to take important information from a multitude of users and sell it to advertising companies, according to NBC. The question that remains is whether or not the application is worth the safety and privacy risk.
For senior Augusta Aston, her use of Snapchat has eclipsed her use of text messaging. “It’s really easy to use and much faster than texting,” she said. “I use it much more than texting because it says a lot more with less effort.”
Another bonus of snapchat is that a single snapchat can be sent to one person or many people at once, and that a user doesn’t have to save the photos they take.
Aston is not alone in her love for Snapchat: statistics suggest that instant-picture messaging is the future of person-to-person virtual communication. TIME magazine reported that the average cell-phone user sends 628 text messages a month, which is 8 percent down from last year’s 708 per month.
But Snapchat has had a 600 percent increase in use of over the same period of time: its around 30 million monthly active users send around 400 million photos and videos a day.
Because of Snapchat’s widespread success, many believe the app will not suffer for its hacking scandal.
“Once something is popular with our generation, everyone uses is it,” sophomore Sloane Castleman said. “I don’t really see people quitting just because of this incident.”
Director of Technology and Information Resources Jason Curtis acknowledged the application’s recent faults but still believes it to be just as safe as any other internet application used for social media. For him, the only area of questionable safety is in the individual’s use.
“A car is neither safe nor unsafe while sitting on the lot. The safety of a vehicle is determined by drivers not by the vehicle itself, and I believe the same is true of most social media platforms,” Curtis said. “Safety is determined by the users’ choices, not by the medium that they use to exercise those choices.”
– Molly Montgomery
