back to article That NAKED SELFIE you sent on Snapchat? You may be seeing it again

The developers behind the Snapchat photo-sharing app have agreed to a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over allegations of collecting and mishandling user data. The Commission said that it has agreed with Snapchat to a set of measures that will be placed on the company that will include regular monitoring of the …

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  1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Holmes

    "for the next 20 years"

    Essentially a lifetime guarantee, then?

    1. Annihilator
      Thumb Up

      Re: "for the next 20 years"

      And then some

  2. Don Jefe

    I can't stand it when governments pass out decades long monitoring of a single company, but leave the industry unmolested as long as they don't get caught. Instead of one off wins the FTC should just scale whatever it is the watchdogs plan to do inside Snapchat and do the same for everybody who collects personal info.

    Sadly, it would almost undoubtedly be cheaper for the FTC to monitor entire industries than it is to monitor a few companies here and there.

    1. Mpeler
      Big Brother

      All your data are belong to us...

      Why should they waste the money? They can just contact their pals at the NSA every so often....

      Sad, but true: the Web never forgets....

      (Was trying to think of something along the lines of "what's the difference between Love and The Web" ...) (/cynicism)...

  3. Crazy Operations Guy

    "While we were focused on building, some things didn't get the attention they could have."

    No, those things didn't get the attention that they *should* have given. This flaw was idiotic and should have ever happened. They have one product that does exactly one thing plus they control everything about the product, including how it is accessed. There is absolutely no excuse for not doing proper security testing and fixing holes like this.

    The hubris they displayed afterwards when brushing off the security flaw as no big deal shows that they don;t know a damn thing about security or even what it means to run a company. I hope that they fail so that someone who knows what they are doing can step in and fix this pile of rotting Swiss cheese.

    1. bigtimehustler

      Re: "While we were focused on building, some things didn't get the attention they could have."

      These are all valid points, but why do you think a startup company with effectively not very many staff an their disposal or hard cash for that matter would actually know or be able to carry out these kinds of things while also trying to maintain their market position against competitors with more cash at their disposal? Just because something should happen, does not mean finances make it possible to happen.

      When you have a decent idea and throw and app together plus a et of API's for said app, you dont always expect it to suddenly hit the big time and be used by millions of people, playing catch up on dealing with all of that is a mountain of a problem, given even the best intentions.

  4. dominio público

    I give nudies to anybody I don't trust

    We live in a weird time when people want to give nude pictures of themselves to people that they don't trust so they give them to a third party business instead and think that that is somehow better.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: I give nudies to anybody I don't trust

      I'd guess 90% of web business provide services that could be easily done on your own personal web server - if only people could be arsed to do the larning they will have to do to control the services the web business provide for a 'fee'.

  5. JLV
    FAIL

    So...

    ref. http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/05/snapchat-settles-ftc-charges-promises-disappearing-messages-were

    Lessee.

    1. The company screws up.

    2. FTC "nails" them:

    I don't even see the subtlest hint of a slap on the wrist where it matters. Where is there any notion of penalty to the owners? The company's reputation might be slightly sullied, but much less so than their security breach should have warranted.

    In the meantime, $ stay in the owners' wallets. And the US taxpayer funds 20 yrs of oversight. Far from an incentive for others not to abuse trust, it shows how little is at stake if they get caught.

  6. Mitoo Bobsworth
    Unhappy

    50/50

    Snapchat certainly have a lot to answer for, but lets not forget all the young punters who bought into the idea without even giving it a first thought let alone a second one. Naivety & narcissism can be cruel teachers - hopefully those affected have become wiser from the experience.

  7. Vociferous

    So snapchat effectively collected kiddie porn?

    Sounds like they got off (ha!) very easy indeed.

  8. asdf

    can't resist

    I assume most people over 40 look at snapchat and ask themselves the usual are Millennials full retard? Even the millennial founder of the company is full special for turning down a multibillion dollar offer for his fad.

    1. Vociferous

      Re: can't resist

      I'm over 40 and that's been my default attitude to new internet companies for years. I've learned that I'm wrong in direct proportion to how dumb I think the company's idea is.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Totally agree.

        So Twitter is going to be a roaring success, isn't it ?

        1. Vociferous

          > So Twitter is going to be a roaring success, isn't it ?

          Second-dumbest idea ever, after snapchat -- so yeah, roaring success.

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