While Snapchat promises to delete your photos after you take them, that's not exactly true. The photo messaging service revealed over a year ago that instead of just deleting photos, it's app stores users' photos for future reference. But does this mean that government agencies have access to these photos?
That's what Snapchat's transparency report is supposed to address. The disappearing photo app released its first transparency report on Thursday, which reveals details about how many government agencies have requested access to photos in the past, and how many of these requests Snapchat has fulfilled. The company says that it only received 375 requests from government agencies during the period between November 1,, 2014 and February 28, 2015, which is significantly less than what other sites get. For example, Facebook received more than 15,000 requests between July and December 2014.
"US law enforcement requested information from an ominous total of 666 Snapchat accounts during the reporting period, and Snapchat handed over some data for 92 per cent of the requests," The Register reported. In contrast, Snapchat only received 28 requests from non-U.S. governments.
While Snapchat has always argued that it keeps users' data safe, it revealed what kind of data government agencies could get their hands on in 2013.
Snapchat's first transparency report was released after the Electronic Freedom Foundation asked the company to release more information about its data so that consumers can find out who tries to access their data, and for what reason. The company plans to release a transparency report every six months from now on.
