A number of Snapchat users seemed to have misunderstood the company's updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service that it rolled out last week.
As a way to make things clearer, Snapchat sent out a statement to its users, assuring them that the company does not store user content indefinitely.
"The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update," said Snapchat. "Our Privacy Policy continues to say - as it did before - that those messages are automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired."
One of the traits that keeps Snapchat unique compared to other apps is how it allows the messages sent by users to have a short life span and eventually disappear after it has been viewed. This way, users tend to feel more relaxed and secure since they believe that whatever content they share will never appear again and will never be retrieved.
However, the company's updated Privacy Policy gave the impression that it now has some firm rights to the photos that were sent using the app.
According to the new Terms of Service, Snapchat has the right to "host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed)."
In other words, Snapchat will now be able to use every content that is sent through the app in order to promote the service and to distribute such among the public.
While it is true that Snapchat would still delete most messages from its servers such as those that are self-destructing just like what it has done in the past, the company also stated in the document that it cannot guarantee that users' messages and corresponding metadata will be deleted within a certain time frame.
Snapchat explains that its "right to trawl" into users' private content and then share it with third parties is related to its new Live Stories feature.
"We need that license when it comes to, for example, Snaps submitted to Live Stories, where we have to be able to show those Stories around the world - and even replay them or syndicate them."
Some of the things that Snapchat could do with users' content include "researching and developing" new services and then passing them over to "business partners." The company also reportedly collects and shares data such as the type of device that the user has, the operating system that runs in the device, the user's phone network and location data.
