Watch out, Snapchat users: There’s a new way for recipients to save embarrassing photos sent over the popular disappearing-picture messaging application.
SnapHack Pro, released Monday, is a new iPhone app that allows users to save picture and video messages without the sender ever knowing. The unaffiliated app is a departure from Snapchat’s official function, which informs users if recipients have taken screenshots of pictures that were sent.
“The question is going to be: Does the person have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they sent that photo?” said Jon Mills, a professor at the UF Levin College of Law and author of the book “Privacy: The Lost Right.”
Snapchat’s popularity stemmed from the idea of allowing recipients to view pictures or videos for a certain number of seconds before they disappear, but SnapHack isn’t shy about subverting this mission.
“Save your Snapchats to your camera roll without the sender knowing and view them as many times as you like!” reads the app’s description.
SnapHack Pro, which costs $1.99 in the App Store, allows users to log in with their Snapchat username and password and retrieve any picture or video message sent to them as many times as they wish.
Snapchat users have expressed concern with the new app.
“If you can screenshot it without me knowing, I think that violates the integrity of Snapchat,” said Francie Weinberg, a 21-year-old UF public relations senior.
Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at UF, said anyone who uses technology should assume the information is being stored.
“People who use Snapchat are probably a little bit naïve to think that somebody out there on the other end is not actually able to save the photographs,” Calvert said. “If it’s not something you wouldn’t want your mother to see, you probably shouldn’t be posting it.”
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 10/16/2013 under the headline "Old Snapchats could haunt users with new iPhone app"
SnapHack Pro, an app that allows users to save Snapchats, was released Monday. The app does not notify Snapchat senders that recipients have saved their videos and images.
