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This week in Snapchat privacy issues, turns out iOS 7 kills the app’s screenshot notification

snapchats photo
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Snapchat has had enough privacy issues to last the start-up a lifetime – and there’s a new one to add to the ever-growign list. According to the LA Times, it turns out the everyone running iOS 7 won’t be able to receive Snapchat’s screenshot notification, which alerts users when the recipient of the Snap has taken a screenshot of the image. IOS 7 prevents this notification from going through, however, so you’ll never know what sexts you need to be worried about. 

IOS 7 is still in beta, but developers who have early access to the update have found that it deal with screenshots differently than the last version of Apple’s mobile operating system. This does mean that since iOS 7 won’t be publicly released until the Fall, Snapchat has some time to try and find a fix. Of course Apple is a bit closed-off when it comes to tinkering with native features like this, so Snapchat could find itself in a precarious position. And if we’re going to go whole-hog conspiracy theorist on this, you have to wonder if Apple is plotting some iMessage feature involving private, time-based texting…

The bigger issue in all this has less to do with iOS 7’s screenshot alert-killer and more with the fact that Snapchat just can’t catch a break. The supposedly “private” messaging system is obviously not what we all originally thought it was, as more and more ways to save or find Snaps continue to surface. There are so many loopholes, it’s hard to keep up. At least this time, Snapchat has a hope of patching it, and it was discovered by a small group rather than en masse. 

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Francis Bea
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