SnapChat comments
The leak which took the world yesterday by storm is bound to leave maximum impact. SnapChat, the self destructive messaging service provided on its part struct the blame squarely on third party clients. In two tweets released yesterday, it expressly said that the fault was with the third party client Apps.
We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks.
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) October 10, 2014
Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our ToU.
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) October 10, 2014
While we understand that SnapChat may not have been at fault for the 13 gigs / 200,000 images leak but the responsibility lies squarely on SnapChat. When a service provider says that the text/image messages sent by the user will self destruct the moment they are received by the opposite party, they should self destruct. This is the basic premise on which SnapChat is installed by users in the first place and breaching the sacred law makes SnapChat responsible. Whatever ToU was signed by SnapChat with its 3rd party clients should have included this facts. Notwithstanding the claims made by SnapChat, it should be understood that there are several thousand images of 13 to 17 year olds which are not for either sharing or direct consumption by anybody.
The leaker’s statement.
Meanwhile a ‘Guest’ took responsibility for the leaks in a paste made on Pastebin. The full paste is given below.
I wish to begin this release with the following: I WILL NOT BE LEAKING ANY CONTENT FROM SNAPSAVED OR SNAPCHAT. Normally I would apologize to people I have misled, but in this case, I have decided against doing so. The content that has been released over the last 48 hours is an invasion of personal privacy. I do not condone this action or any like it. I understand the want and need for this content by what seems like a large section of the Internet. Normally, I am completely for the freedom of information and the free flow of content through the Internet; however, this “snappening” will aid no one and hurt us in the end.
Over the last few days, content has been leaked from a site called Snapsaved.com. The content released from this site was provided to us by the administrator of the site. Users could freely browse all media on this website, and view as per user account. When the site became unusable, the administrator compiled a full directory of the content and uploaded it to an un-indexed website where you could freely download it.
These images were saved by individuals on the aforementioned website, so they could freely browse their saved SnapChat images. SnapChat service is supposed to provide a temporary means of transferring images and videos to your friends, family and acquaintances. Multiple times over the last few years the privacy element of SnapChat has been questioned and rightly so. Due to the misconception of SnapChat’s business model, people have the illusion that media they send will be temporary and cannot be saved. They have put their faith in a system that is clearly broken and I wish to raise awareness to this fact.
I have witnessed over the last 48 hours the trending nature of this topic and I have seen how the media really reports on happenings to do with 4chan. They have assumed and misinformed the public on this topic. To make this very clear, SnapChat has not been hacked. This was a service used by people to save SnapChat media. While the leaks originated on 4chan without seeing any proof, they assumed and wrongly so, that the archive that was taken from Snapsaved mainly comprised of child photography (^word changed). From what I have gathered from individuals on the Internet, there is little to no child photography (^word changed) in this archive.
These images were not collected by people on the Deep Web and on perverted underground chatrooms as the media has been reporting. The majority of these images are of normal ever day activities; walking to school, showing off your new haircut or cooking a meal.
I now wish to address the current content holders and possible collectors of this media. Consider for a moment the images of 200,000 people being leaked at once. Do you think that’s a good thing for the Internet? Do you think that will keep our Internet free? I understand there was already a partial leak of videos and images earlier today. I want possible downloaders of this content to understand that this is personal privacy we are invading. I don’t want to come off as a social justice warrior but we constantly fight on a daily basis for Internet freedoms. If this content is posted/leaked it will just be playing into the hands of the individuals who wish to actively monitor all Internet activity. Please for the sake of the Internet we enjoy and love every day, do not leak this content.
I’ll sign off this release by saying I never imagined a story like this having such a global effect. I wish to apologize to anyone that was affected by these happenings. It was not my intention to pervert your personal property. I hope if anything this will bring attention and awareness to the fact that you should, if at all possible, never send explicit images of yourself over a medium which you do not directly control. In short, I will NOT be leaking any content today, tomorrow, or ever. I wish for these images and videos to remain private for the benefit of both the Internet and of personal privacy. I wish you all the best and please think before you post.
Mr Guest trying to absolve himself
Pastebin Mr.Guest is either playing too cute or being the sole arbitrator for himself. If he is indeed the leaker of the 13Gigs of SnapChat Hacks, can he absolve himself for by making a paste and saying I am sorry! Why did he or his team collect the images belonging to private individuals including little children aged 13 to 17 years, in the first place. Did he not know he was committing a federal offence when he did that.
As said yesterday in our post regarding #Snappening, there are a whole lot of questions and too little answers from the concerned parties. Can SnapChat say it is not responsible for the images sent using its service by gullible people. The anger against the said leaks was visible on all forums including Reddit where the users called the leaker a sick person. Hope law catches up with this sick person and makes an example out of him/her so that others dont stray on this path.
This article is a follow up opinion piece of the After iCloud Hacks now come the SnapChat Hacks, 13GB of SnapChat images leaked
I really don’t think it’s all that bad. First, the hacker(s) would need to prove “who” goes with a specific image or video; or… even better, someone’s husband/wife/so would have to go through MILLIONS of images, and then, finally, 14 years down the road, say, “AHA, I caught you! There you are in that 257 millionth picture that I searched through, with that skank from 14 years ago, when that Snapchat hack happened!” Or… “Look honey, that is YOUR penis! I’d know it anywhere! You freaking cheater!”
But I do appreciate articles like yours – you aren’t “glossing over” any false thruths. Bottom line: hacking should not intentionally hurt innocent people. But, you are right, Snapchat needs to take some responsibility. At the same time users, and Snapsave and whatever other entities, also need to take some of the blame/responsibility. If you, as a Snapchat user, violated the ToS, then you opened yourself up. It’s just like when we use these “web pages” to sign in via Facebook or Linked in or whatever, to some “other” site – you don’t really know what’s being that login page! That could be a fake SSL cert and fake images that are a clone of a facebook or linkedin login page – and the, boom, your credentials are intercepted.
Just sayin’ … keep up the honest articles! Thanks!