After several users showed confusion about the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service released by Snapchat last week, the company posted a communicate on its blog setting the record straight.
“First off, we want to be crystal clear: The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update,” it is the first thing the company said, clarifying what may be the largest concern of their users.
They explain that messages are automatically deleted from their servers once they are viewed or they’ve expired, although the option to save Snaps or chat messages remains available —along with the “cheat option” of the screenshot.
Nevertheless, the company remarks the fact that they don’t intend to keep your private snaps or messages, saying that they can’t, and won’t, share that kind of information to other business partners or advertisers.
The company said that their Terms or Service grants them with a license that allows them to use some of the content created by users, for example in the feature Live Stories. If this license wasn’t approved by users, Snapchat could not stream live videos and pictures of the people in a certain city or event, as they do now.
“But we tried to be clear that the Privacy Policy and your own privacy settings within the app could restrict the scope of that license so that your personal communications continue to remain truly personal,” the company adds.
Snapchat also explained the reasons that led them to review and rewrite their Terms and Privacy Policy, trying to make them readable to users, using a less formal or technical language.
They added a new language, regarding the purchase of “replays”, and other products that the company plans to bring to the users “soon.” Snapchat also added new language regarding the purchase of replays and some future products and services the company says it has in the pipeline.
Source: Snapchat Blog