Legal, Policies, and Ethics

Do you read privacy policies? I know I sure don’t. There are way too many small printed words that I don’t think I have time to read. I now am starting to think that maybe, privacy policies are something that I should be making time for. I have heard over and over again that Snapchat has released a new “scary” privacy policy or threats that those pictures or snaps I am sending on a daily basis are not actually deleted after 10 seconds. I have finally heard enough and decided to check it out for myself.
As of October 28, 2015 in order to continue to use or sign up for Snapchat, users are required to agree to the terms and conditions of their new privacy policy. The full policy can be found at https://www.snapchat.com/privacy


This policy claims that there are 3 ways that Snapchat will collect information from its users. These include:
Information you choose to give us.
Information we get automatically when you use our services.
Information we get from third parties.


The policy then goes on to explain exactly what is meant by these three areas. I don’t want to pick apart the entire policy, because let’s be honest, that would be boring. Although I would like to make people aware of a few things that startled me. According to http://www.marketwatch.com/story/snapchats-new-scary-privacy-policy-has-left-users-outraged-2015-10-29, the terms of service state, “You grant Snapchat a world-wide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods.” This means that after you agree to these terms, you give Snapchat the right to use your information, pictures and videos however they see fit. This can include selling this type of information to third party advertisers. The link I have sited also states that Snapchat gives more details as to what exactly is meant by this statement, but it isn’t obvious and requires some effort to find.

http://www.techinsider.io/snapchat-privacy-policy-update-explained-2015-10 claims, “Data gathering on users is a common practice for social networks — Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all have similar condition for what you publicly share on their networks. “ It was really eye opening to me to read this statement and do some investigating for myself. As for me personally, I am going to continue to use these social media sites. I understand the sacrifices I am making by agreeing to their terms and conditions, but I feel that it is important for each user to explore and make the decision for themselves. Just like anything on the internet, once something is posted it is gone forever. So be aware of what you are posting and the ramifications that it could have in the future.