Snapchat is currently a popular and controversial mobile app, through which users can chat with friends using images and videos with captions.

 

"Self-destructing message" is one of the most unique features of Snapchat, allowing users to decide the time an image or a video to be deleted by itself after being viewed for privacy and security purposes. Many users feel comfortable with this "self-destructing message" feature. This makes it very popular in a teenage world and teenagers are attracted to share their sexy or even nude pictures or videos among their friends "just for fun", which is called "sexting".

 

However, there are ways to keep or retain the image or video of Snapchat. For example, the recipient can take screenshots to capture the phone screen. Some methods can extract the images or videos directly or even recover the "deleted" ones inside the phones. Snapchat has also confirmed that they cannot prevent the recipients from capturing and saving the message.

 

Moreover, it was reported that hackers successfully collected and published the usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million Snapchat accounts via the security loopholes of the application. Although the updated version of Snapchat has permitted users to opt out of having their phone numbers linked to their usernames in the "Find Friends" feature, it cannot remove members' phone numbers from the already-leaked database.

 

As a rule of thumb, users should not share any sensitive or private information via Snapchat. The "self-destructing message" feature does not mean the images or videos cannot be retained or retrieved by someone else. Besides, it is not always necessary to provide as much information as the platform requests, such as phone number during the signup process. It can avoid leakage of such information.