Snapchat, an extremely popular social media platform, boasts about having a more transparent privacy policy than the other big tech corporations, such as Google and Apple. Snapchat claims that their agreement is “blissfully free of the legalese that often clouds these documents” which differs from most companies that want you to carelessly check the box affirming that you have read and agree with the terms and conditions, unknowingly surrendering your privacy rights so this made me quite skeptical. I know this may be shocking to some(see interview at bottom of page), but, in light of my suspicion, I actually decided to read Snapchat’s Privacy Policy and my findings were disturbing.
The document started out by addressing the obvious information any user knowingly provides, like name, age, username/password, before addressing some of the more controversial types of data they collect. Some examples of these are your location, who you communicate with on the app, and the stories you post that are only supposed to exist for 24 hours. However, these were some of the more mild examples, what I found more distressing was how Snapchat assumes the legal right to collect information from sources outside of the app itself. This can include your contact information, device settings, and the other apps on your phone. It seemed unfair to me that your agreement to the policy permits Snapchat to breach the privacy of your contacts who had not agreed to the terms or do not even use the app.
After stating the types of information that Snapchat collects, the document details how they use the information. All the ways that the user benefits from the information collected, such as personalization and security, are addressed first and most clearly. However, when it comes to the more controversial uses, like selling the your information to other businesses and targeted advertising, the descriptions become longer and more complex. The next section of the document outlined how they share information with different people/businesses. This section followed the same outline as the previous and waited until the end to address the more unsettling points. I found it interesting that Snapchat shares the most information with the third parties. It is disturbing to me that the main recipients of your private information are third parties that you have no real connection to. I also found it concerning that Snapchat has complete control over the information they collect. Even if you delete your account or request to have the information removed, Snapchat still reserves the right to do as they please.
The part of the document that concerned me the most just so happened to be squeezed in at the very bottom of the page. This section, titled “Revisions to the Privacy Policy” basically said that when they make changes to their policy that they will notify the users any way they please, be it a direct notification which seems like the ethical thing to do or they will simply change the date on the policy document posted on the website and app. This is problematic because it means that they can change their policy and only have to notify the users by slightly altering a document that they most likely never in the first place and certainly will not go out of their way to constantly check for subtle changes.
Snapchat does everything they can to maintain the happy go lucky reputation from their Casper-like logo to the constant updates introducing fun new features. However, after diving into the Privacy Policy document my perception has completely changed. Snapchat does everything they can to present the benefits of this breach of privacy while ignoring the drawbacks. While reading through this document I was constantly reminded of the ways Circle employees spoke about privacy in The Circle(Dave Eggers, 2o13). They ridiculed privacy as stealing and proclaimed that an ideal world is one where everyone is transparent. The Circle is specifically described as a dystopian novel and I find it very concerning that major tech companies are adopting a similar philosophy as The Circle. I do not know if there is an effective way to combat the ethical deficiencies of the major tech corporations but I do know that we are headed down a slippery slope.
