Snapchat Reaches Settlement with FTC over Privacy Misrepresentations

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On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Snapchat Inc. has agreed to settle charges that it deceived consumers by falsely promising that messages sent through its popular messaging app would disappear. This major development could pave the way for consumer class action lawsuits to be filed against Snapchat for its deceptive marketing tactics.

Snapchat is a mobile application that purportedly allows users to send a video or photo to friends and have it disappear without a trace. The Snapchat app requires a sender to designate a period of time that the recipient will be allowed to view the video or photo. “Snapchat markets the application as an ‘ephemeral’ messaging application, having claimed that once the timer expires, the snap ‘disappears forever,’” the FTC lawsuit says.

The promise that the photo or video would simply vanish was appealing to users who wanted to send spontaneous, personal messages that would not be archived in digital history. The Snapchat app quickly became popular among millions of people concerned about their images being viewed or stored without their permission.

However, the FTC’s investigation revealed that there were multiple ways for users to save Snapchat messages without the knowledge or consent of the sender. For example, Snapchat users can use third-party apps to log into the messaging service and view and save “snaps” indefinitely. The FTC lawsuit alleged that even though the company was warned about this possibility, Snapchat continued to assert that the sender had control over the recipient’s ability to view the snap.

The FTC lawsuit also alleged that Snapchat images that had supposedly disappeared could be easily accessed by simply connecting a mobile device to a computer and use simple file browsing tools to locate and save the file. This method of locating “disappeared” files was possible because the Snapchat app stores the video file in an unrestricted area of the mobile device. Even though this method of saving Snapchat video files was publicized as early as December 2012, Snapchat reportedly did not fix the flaw for nearly 10 months, when it began encrypting video files sent through the app.

Further, the FTC investigation revealed that Snapchat deceived consumers about the amount of personal data it collected from its users and the security measures taken to protect the data. According to a statement issued Thursday by the FTC, Snapchat allegedly failed to properly secure its Find Friends feature, resulting in a major security breach that compromised the usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million Snapchat users.

The FTC lawsuit also alleged that, contrary to Snapchat’s assertions, the app accessed and collected users’ location-specific information.

Under the terms of the Snapchat settlement, the company must implement a privacy program that will be monitored by an independent privacy expert for the next 20 years. Snapchat is also prohibited from misrepresenting the privacy of its app and the confidentiality of user information.

Millions of Snapchat users trusted the company’s promise that their snaps could not be seen by recipients once the designated viewing time had expired. This privacy settlement with the FTC is likely to open the door to Snapchat class action lawsuits filed by consumers seeking to hold the company accountable for its misrepresentations.