Snapchat and Privacy
When it comes to technology and putting personal information on the internet, the subject of privacy is a popular topic, especially within social media. What will the person you're communicating with do with the information? What does the company associated with this technology do with this information, and where does it go once you don’t need it anymore? These are questions many people have but some are left wondering if the personal connections we have with others and new technologies that allows us to do so in the digital age are a threat to our own safety.
When the app Snapchat first came out, the excitement over the new way of communicating back and fourth through videos and picture exchanges was intense. What made Snapchat unique was the disappearing photos and messages that could not be seen again after opening. In the article, Snapchat’s New ‘Scary’ Privacy Policy Has Left Users Outraged’ it discusses the disapproval over Snapchat's update to their terms and conditions. In this article Sally French writes, “…that Snapchat has the rights to reproduce, modify and republish your photos and save those photos to Snapchat’s servers, specifically in relation to the ‘Live Story’ feature” (French). Anything you create, upload and send can be shared with other people, and Snapchat's affiliates. This mostly meant that if a snapchat was submitted to a live story, made public to all contacts, it could be saved and used by Snapchat. Private snaps between users were safe. The response to this was massive, as many people voiced their opinions as being scared for their safety, threatening to delete the app, and outraged. The wording of these new policies are what made a lot of people concerned.
The article, Snapchat’s New ‘Scary’ Privacy Policy Has Left Users Outraged relates to Baym's ideas about the effects of framing ideas around new technology, showing how angry and violated people get when a new app or technology made available for communication uses the word “privacy” and frames its policies and intentions in a specific way. However, the question that needs to be asked in a situation like this is, do the benefits of Snapchat outweigh the negative fears of invasion of privacy? In the reading "Making Media Make Sense", Baym writes that "We are surrounded by messages that treat media qualities as a cause of social consequences" (Baym 28). Many people enjoy these new technologies as a way to connect, but what is the risk of privacy people are are willing to give up in order to connect?
This fear people have about their privacy within social media shows that the way new technologies are framed is important. The communication about technology is what creates new meaning for technologies. Baym states that "There is s strong tendency, especially when technologies are new, to view them as casual agents, entering societies as active forces of change that humans have little power to resist" (Baym 24). If the conversations surrounding a new technology are negative, and show the loss of power, these mass mediated messages will cause fear, and influence the way people think. However, as a society we have the power to socially construct technology, and decide how we use it, and how it effects our lives and privacy.
As Baym said, “That the internet has been largely domesticated does not mean that all anxieties surrounding it have been resolved” (Baym, 14). Not only in Snapchat, but in all new technologies, privacy will always be an issue, and it is up to the individual as to whether they want to face that uncertainty for their demand and need for technological communication.
Works Cited:
Baym, Nancy K. "Making New Media Make Sense." Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010. 22-49. Print.
French, Sally. “Snapchat’s New ‘Scary’ Privacy Policy Has Left Users Outraged” Market Watch. November 2, 2015. Accessed February 06, 2017.
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