On December 31, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it approved a final order settling charges against Snapchat.
In its complaint, the FTC charged Snapchat with deceiving consumers over the amount of personal data that it collected and the security measures in place to protect the data from disclosure and misuse.
The settlement order prohibits Snapchat from misrepresenting the extent to which a message is deleted after being viewed by the recipient and the extent to which Snapchat is capable of detecting or notifying the sender when a recipient has captured a screenshot or otherwise saved the message. Snapchat is also prohibited from misrepresenting the steps taken to protect against misuse or unauthorized disclosure of information.
Finally, the company will be required to implement a “comprehensive privacy program” and obtain assessments of that program every two years from an independent privacy professional for the next 20 years.
In its press release, the FTC noted that its settlement with Snapchat is “part of the FTC’s ongoing effort to ensure that companies market their apps truthfully and keep their privacy promises to consumers.” For more information from the FTC on marketing apps, click here.