Smile for the cops! Sexy Snapchat selfies' self-destruct scrubbed by search warrants

I take it we're talking pedos trading CP here?

Yeah, I think I'll save my indignation this time.

So….

Would be fairly trivial to allow each user to set up a crypto key, so Snapchat themselves could never have access to the plaintext pics…

If you're privacy-minded, the best defence against enforced disclosure is not having the data. My previous ISP in New York (bway.net) used to make a *point* of not keeping logs of which IP address was assigned to which user at any given time, so any request or demand for information was met with a shrug and a 'sorry, we don't keep that data'. AnonDSL was what they called the service.

'images of questionable legality'...

are very much a question of location. As I understand, images legal in the GB of the naughties may be quite illegal nowadays. So just don't send stupid pictures!

Disappointed

Back when I ran a simple mailing list, I had an even simpler privacy policy. "This information will not be used for any other purpose, not even keeping our own sorry arses out of jail". It never came to it, but I was quite prepared to take those addresses to the grave rather than let them into the hands of the Authorities.

The world needs more people prepared to choose what is right over what petty control freaks demand.

There are about a million ways this could be prevented, starting with encrypted storage of stuff to which the servers don't have the key (as has been mentioned) and ending with never passing actual pictures through the server in the first place (direct peer-to-peer). It just seems that nobody really gives a damn - and those that do simply stay away.

Oh, my BOFH!

"According to Schaffer ... only he and Snapchat CTO Bobby Murphy have access to the tools used for extracting unopened selfies from the company's servers."

This fellow Schaffer is either being terminally naive or simply disingenuous. To give him credit, I suspect it's the former...

Kids?

When will the kids learn that there's no such thing as a free lunch ( or maybe I should've just left the mis-spelling: lynch )?

I question the integrity of those using snap chat! Hardly surprising in post millenium Britian. Seems most partens have dragged their kids up, not raised them with decency, integrity or respect.

There is only one thing that can be said "If you get your tiits out for the lads, expect them to be posted everywhere!" At least Page 3/porn stars are proud to have them displayed.

"only he and Snapchat CTO Bobby Murphy have access to the tools used for extracting unopened selfies from the company's servers."

"...As a matter of fact, I'd better make sure those tools are still working. Can't be too sure, you know. I'll be in my underground lai - err, my office. Hold my calls, Sally."

So in that case why transfer them to the phone when requested? transmit them to the handset immediately and delete them from the server, encrypt them and when the user requests to view them, transmit the decryption key. That way you cut down on the storage time massively, things only being stored if the handset is not in data reception reach.