Because at this rate, who can you trust right?

We’ve talked about Facebook and Google messing around with users’ data and privacy in the past, and if you’re anyone who spends time worrying about how your data is used online, you’ve probably read a million stories about social media and how the companies behind those apps abuse user data. But one of the most attractive parts about Snapchat has always been it’s ethereal messaging nature, simply put, nothing on Snapchat stays there for too long, and everything gets deleted after sometime. It’s basically the social media equivalent of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”, and has long been one of the main draws for a lot of it’s users because no one could see that erm……adventurous post you sent while not so sober last night after 24 hours, whether they work for Snapchat or just follow you. Except now, that may not be entirely true.

It turns out Snapchat employees use a tool called SnapLion to access your location, phone numbers, email addresses(technically not exactly unexpected) and even your saved snaps (okay, this makes us raise an eyebrow) and there are reports of employees using it to spy on people. It’s more of disappointing news than anything, after all we all suspect these companies to keep some version of data about us, but when the company which seemingly prides itself on your data disappearing and not being abused in any way, starts having it’s own employees abuse that data, well, it leaves us really just exhausted. It’s basically wise advice to not post too much of your data on the net these days, but feeling like every social network might be watching you either doesn’t help. And to be fair, one could argue this is probably used in interest areas for these companies which are usually in the west, but that isn’t exactly a comforting fact either, because it just means Big Brother isn’t watching you yet.

Either way, this just serves as another reminder to not post too much on the internet if you don’t want the wrong people looking at it. Leave us your thoughts on social networks and companies like Google misusing your data.