Snap Inc. is a camera company with various products and services, such as the well-known social media platform Snapchat. A lot of people, especially teenagers, use Snapchat to communicate and share pictures with their friends. How many of those teenagers, though, read the Privacy Policy when first signing up? I guarantee not a lot. I decided to read into their Privacy Policy to see what information and data they collect.

They collect three different categories of information: the information you provide, the information we get when you use our services, and the information we obtain from third parties.

Information you provide includes what details you give them when you sign up for an account. This includes your name, email, birthday, phone number, etc. This is a pretty typical part of a Privacy Policy, so I was not surprised by anything.

Moreover, Snap Inc. collects information when you use their services, such as how you interact with ads and their services (such as filters). This did not surprise me, since many other companies do this, too, such as Facebook. As read in an article titled “Breaking up with Facebook,” every interaction we have is tracked and stored in a database. Each company may do something different with this information, but they each track down what we do. Snapchat may also track who you communicate with (and how you do so), information on what device and camera you use, your location, etc. Snapmap is a feature that a lot of teens use. You have your friends on a map, and their location updates overtime they log on. Of course, this can be turned off, but as I read in the article “Fitbit Could Prove a Man’s Innocence,” it may help specific situations.

Snap Inc. also collects information about you from other users and third parties. For example, if you link your account to another service, such as Bitmoji, the companies may trade information on how you use their services. They may also share information on how you interact with different ads to tailor your experience better.

Snap Inc. communicate with their users that they may use the information they collect with other Snapchatters, business partners, affiliates, third parties, and even the general public. While the Snaps and Chats you send are automatically deleted (unless saved), Snapchat saves a lot of your information for more extended periods or until you ask them to delete it.

While reading this Privacy Statement, I was surprised about how much information they actually store and how they share it with other companies and even the public. However, I know that even if people are aware of how their information is being collected and stored, their behaviors will not change, and they will continue to use it.

The internet and social media help us stay connected with others, as proven in “Social Media’s Not All Bad – It’s Saving Lives in Disaster Zones,” and it may help us in certain situations. However, it is up to each user to read these companies’ privacy policies and decide whether not to want to share their information and have their interactions tracked.

After showing an undergraduate student the Privacy Policy of Snapchat, I followed up with some questions.