Not So Temporary: Security Flaw Allows Snapchat & Facebook Poke Users To Keep Content Forever

Snapchat is nifty little app that allows users to share temporary pictures or video (iPhone only) with each other for between 1 and 10 seconds. After that time limit the content is removed and is deleted off of the company’s servers. Theoretically, Snapchat is used to send goofy pictures and videos to one another in […]

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Snapchat is nifty little app that allows users to share temporary pictures or video (iPhone only) with each other for between 1 and 10 seconds. After that time limit the content is removed and is deleted off of the company’s servers.

Theoretically, Snapchat is used to send goofy pictures and videMedia Buttonos to one another in real-time. The temporary aspect of the service however has made it prime target for “safe sexting.” Since the content can’t be stored, people have been flocking to the app to send dirty pictures & video to each other. Snapchat has become so popular that earlier this month Facebook copied the popular app by creating ‘Poke,’ and even boasted about doing it in just 12 days.

A new exploit shows how anyone can easily download all content and save permanently for both Snapchat and Facebook Poke. BuzzFeed has a step-by-step article on how to save iPhone content from both Snapchat and Poke and it really isn’t that complicated. This hasn’t been the first issue with this “private” service and likely won’t be the last.

In a time when even Randi Zuckerberg faces privacy issues on Facebook it’s always smart to err on the side of caution when posting sensitive content on social sites and especially when sharing with others. For more information and step-by-step instructions to save content, see BuzzFeed.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Finn
Contributor
Greg Finn is the Director of Marketing for Cypress North, a company that provides world-class social media and search marketing services and web & application development. He has been in the Internet marketing industry for 10+ years and specializes in Digital Marketing. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn.

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