Snapchat employees spied on users by misusing internal tools



[ad_1]

Several Snapchat employees have spied on users by misusing internal tools, accessing information such as location, phone numbers, and their own saved snapshots.

The tools are supposed to be used to help the company to fight against spam and abuse, and to comply with the demands of the forces of the order, but many employees have access to it and abuse it, say of Former employees …

NordVPN

Vice his report on "multiple sources" and a cache of internal emails.

Several departments of the social media giant Snap have dedicated tools to access user data and several employees have abused their privileged access to spy on Snapchat users, Motherboard learned […]

Several sources and emails also describe SnapLion, an internal tool used by different services to access Snapchat user data.

One of the problems seems to be the huge number of Snap employees from different departments having access to a powerful tool called SnapLion.

One of the internal tools that can access user data is calling SnapLion, according to multiple sources and emails. Originally, this tool was used to collect information about users in response to valid law enforcement requests, such as a court order or a subpoena. appear, said two former employees. Both sources said that SnapLion was a pun with the current acronym of the LEO order forces officer, with one of them adding that "I have not heard from you. this was a reference to the cartoon character Leo the Lion. Snap's "Spam and Abuse" team has access, according to one of the former employees, and a current employee suggested that the tool be used to combat bullying or harassment on the platform by other users. An internal email obtained by the motherboard indicates that a department called "Customer Ops" has access to SnapLion. Security personnel also have access, according to the current employee. The existence of this tool has not been reported before.

SnapLion provides "the keys to the realm," said one of the former employees who described the misuse of users' data.

Many Snapchat users choose the platform specifically because of their perception of privacy protection. Originally, all photos were automatically deleted ten seconds after their display, while the stories remained visible for 24 hours.

A recent survey of 9to5Mac Readers found that the majority of respondents viewed the permanence of traditional social media publications as more negative than positive.

HP Memorial Day Sale

Photo: Shutterstock


Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more information on Apple:

[ad_2]

Source link