"for the next 20 years"
Essentially a lifetime guarantee, then?
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.