As soon as recognized just for its self-destructing pics, lately Snapchat has sneakily evolved into a location-oriented social media app. It’s now leaning additional than ever into that id with a brand new real-time location sharing function that permits relations to share their stay areas with one another. The function will roll out alongside different new location and privateness instruments within the coming weeks.
Upon getting the replace, you’ll see an choice within the Household Middle that lets mother and father request their teen’s areas, and vice versa. The hub may also permit mother and father to view their baby’s location-sharing settings alongside current privateness settings to make sure they’re utilizing the app safely and responsibly. If that’s not sufficient, Snap is permitting relations to ship automated journey notifications, which can ping them while you’ve arrived to or left from three designated areas, reminiscent of house or college.
The timing of of those options’ arrival feels a bit unlucky for Snap, contemplating its app’s controversial look within the information of late associated to privateness and security considerations. An ongoing lawsuit from New Mexico’s legal professional common Raúl Torrez alleges that Snapchat knowingly ignored warnings and evidence that the platform is getting used to focus on and exploit minors with soliciting techniques for “sextortion” and “sexploitation” actions.
It additionally calls out different questionable makes use of reminiscent of gross sales of unlawful weaponry and substances, although that is hardly exclusive to Snapchat. Torrez cited the fleeting nature of the platform’s “Snaps” — non permanent messages, images, and movies which might be completely erased after a set time — as a function that instantly conflicts with the final duty to maintain its customers protected.
With the added potential risks posed by location sharing, we’re naturally curious to find out how Snap plans to assuage mounting fears whereas sustaining the unique spirit of its platform. For now, it’s toeing the road fastidiously by making location options accessible solely by opting in, limiting location sharing strictly to family and friends, and continuously reminding customers to evaluation their privateness and sharing preferences every time they add somebody new.