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Snapchat Says Sorry for Data Breach, Updates Apps With Find Friends Opt-Out

22 points by kirtijthorat 13y ago

pkfrank 13y ago
A ridiculously tepid non-apology apology considering the scale of the breach.
- minimaxir 13y ago
  They said the word "sorry," which is an improvement.
purereason 13y ago
I know it's hard for companies to admit it when they make mistakes / fail, but I think it's important that they do. There's always the risk of litigation etc.. but I think that at the end of the day, given that you can't undo the past, it's always best to come froward and apologize. I know it's talking from the sidelines, and there are probably a lot more considerations that go into it, but as a consumer I do feel better about a company that fails and then takes responsibility for it.
- unreal37 13y ago
  I don't think Snapchat has admitted to any mistakes. What they have said is they are sympathetic to users who have had their data stolen by hackers. They are using the word sorry in the "we are sympathetic" sense, not the apology sense. Sorry you feel that way. Sorry your kid got sick. Sorry your car got broken into. The classic non-apology apology.
3am 13y ago
He should apologize for turning down $3B USD from Facebook. edit - To answer your question: to his shareholders and employees holding options, because it was the right decision from a CAGR perspective. edit 2 - if they get acquired 2 years down the line for $5B, it will still just be a CAGR of less than 30% from the FB offer. It's OT though, so I'll leave the post up to collect my downvote punishment.
- eli 13y ago
  Why? And to Whom?
- sschueller 13y ago
  That would have been the right decision. However Facebook making such an offer is just nuts. What are they buying? 90% or more of the snapchat user base is on Facebook. Why dont they make their own? Make a seperate app, make a new brand and push it on fb.
  - minimaxir 13y ago
    They did make a separate app called Poke and it was heavily pushed. It worked out as you would expect.
kirtijthorat 13y ago
It’s taken a while but SnapChat has finally said sorry for their infamous data breach. But the question still remains is what would you do if your were one of the victim of the 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers that were leaked. Would you just accept an apology? I don;t thinks so.
- cdcarter 13y ago
  My username and phone number were leaked. I have felt no negative impact from this happening. I am mildly annoyed that someone went through the process of making a full database, but I willfully gave my phone number to snapchat for the express purpose of letting people identify it with my username. I accept an apology.
scrrr 13y ago
So how does an apology make anything better?
- bertil 13y ago
  It’s a classic result in psychology that people who suffer from what can be attributed to human error feel better after whomever they deem the culprit apologises in a was they deem sincere. More practical examples include studies noticing that patients tend to sue less after surgeons (personally) apologised for negative outcome of surgery. Expressing sympathy (which is generally considered distinct) also has an impact, although that can be less surprising. Explanations generally consider the preference for a consistent world-view — think “We now all agree it was Brad’s fault, let’s now move on” above scape-goating. In this case, an apology would mean: users were not wrong to trust a well-known app with their personal information, security professionals who warned the company about the breach were not wrong to follow white-hat protocol; the company should have acted on it. It's not clear in this case that ‘sorry’ is an apology, as much as a show of sympathy. As I wrote in a previous comment, I haven’t seen a single user complain about negative effect (or read much on teenager-oriented platforms) so I doubt the sympathy actually is towards typical users; on the other hand, the head-wrangling on Hackers News, and late apology, seem to point at a real concern among security professionals who see standard lowered. I would assume the largest issue is to have the indifferent callousness of Snapchat management contaminate the tech industry, and its perception by the main public; I would actually relate that to the lack of outrage at Snowden’s revelation, and a couple more recent news on privacy: “Our personal information is violated, stolen? Whatever…” Snapchat would make ‘Silicon Valley’ part of that line. Admitting that this is unacceptable would help regain the general perception that personal information needs to be handled with care, generally is and that large brands can be trusted to protect it (be it from black-hats or unwarranted government officials) — yet again, I'm not sure we can read this in SnapChat’s message.
wellboy 13y ago
Cut the guy some slack, he also has to learn. Do you think you would have known straight away how to defend your company against the press, hackernews haters and how to apologize to millions of people when you were 23??
- logn 13y ago
  I wouldn't have bet $3,000,000,000 I did though.
- jonlucc 13y ago
  No, but I would also take a whitehat explaining a problem very seriously.
cheshire137 13y ago
Snapchat has always had the option to provide my mobile phone number in the iOS app so people can find me by my number. I've never filled it in because I was always uncomfortable giving out my phone number to some random app. When the data breach happened, I checked and my phone number was not in the leak. To clarify: the only way your phone number would be known by Snapchat and thus could have been leaked is if you provided it to Snapchat manually, correct?
- jonlucc 13y ago
  Not on Android. As far as I can tell, I never provided my number to Snapchat, aside from installing the app.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  Yes on iOS. No app can have access to your phone number unless you've explicitly given it. There is no 3rd-party API for "this device's number".
- aeonsky 13y ago
  They only leaked the most popular area codes. Do you have one of those?
xtc 13y ago
Opt-out should be default for this to be even relatively meaningful.
- lotso 13y ago
  User's had to opt-in to give Snapchat their phone number. I think this let's you opt-out, even if you had previously opted-in.
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
  So... opt-in?
onedev 13y ago
Too late, already deleted my account. It was a useless app anyway. I personally had no use for it. Friends would send me random stuff all the time but I honestly didn't care. It was usually mass chats anyway.

22 points by kirtijthorat 13y ago

pkfrank 13y ago

A ridiculously tepid non-apology apology considering the scale of the breach.

minimaxir 13y ago
They said the word "sorry," which is an improvement.

purereason 13y ago

I know it's hard for companies to admit it when they make mistakes / fail, but I think it's important that they do. There's always the risk of litigation etc.. but I think that at the end of the day, given that you can't undo the past, it's always best to come froward and apologize. I know it's talking from the sidelines, and there are probably a lot more considerations that go into it, but as a consumer I do feel better about a company that fails and then takes responsibility for it.

unreal37 13y ago
I don't think Snapchat has admitted to any mistakes. What they have said is they are sympathetic to users who have had their data stolen by hackers. They are using the word sorry in the "we are sympathetic" sense, not the apology sense. Sorry you feel that way. Sorry your kid got sick. Sorry your car got broken into. The classic non-apology apology.

3am 13y ago

He should apologize for turning down $3B USD from Facebook. edit - To answer your question: to his shareholders and employees holding options, because it was the right decision from a CAGR perspective. edit 2 - if they get acquired 2 years down the line for $5B, it will still just be a CAGR of less than 30% from the FB offer. It's OT though, so I'll leave the post up to collect my downvote punishment.

eli 13y ago
Why? And to Whom?
sschueller 13y ago
That would have been the right decision. However Facebook making such an offer is just nuts. What are they buying? 90% or more of the snapchat user base is on Facebook. Why dont they make their own? Make a seperate app, make a new brand and push it on fb.
- minimaxir 13y ago
  They did make a separate app called Poke and it was heavily pushed. It worked out as you would expect.

kirtijthorat 13y ago

It’s taken a while but SnapChat has finally said sorry for their infamous data breach. But the question still remains is what would you do if your were one of the victim of the 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers that were leaked. Would you just accept an apology? I don;t thinks so.

cdcarter 13y ago
My username and phone number were leaked. I have felt no negative impact from this happening. I am mildly annoyed that someone went through the process of making a full database, but I willfully gave my phone number to snapchat for the express purpose of letting people identify it with my username. I accept an apology.

scrrr 13y ago

So how does an apology make anything better?

bertil 13y ago
It’s a classic result in psychology that people who suffer from what can be attributed to human error feel better after whomever they deem the culprit apologises in a was they deem sincere. More practical examples include studies noticing that patients tend to sue less after surgeons (personally) apologised for negative outcome of surgery. Expressing sympathy (which is generally considered distinct) also has an impact, although that can be less surprising. Explanations generally consider the preference for a consistent world-view — think “We now all agree it was Brad’s fault, let’s now move on” above scape-goating. In this case, an apology would mean: users were not wrong to trust a well-known app with their personal information, security professionals who warned the company about the breach were not wrong to follow white-hat protocol; the company should have acted on it. It's not clear in this case that ‘sorry’ is an apology, as much as a show of sympathy. As I wrote in a previous comment, I haven’t seen a single user complain about negative effect (or read much on teenager-oriented platforms) so I doubt the sympathy actually is towards typical users; on the other hand, the head-wrangling on Hackers News, and late apology, seem to point at a real concern among security professionals who see standard lowered. I would assume the largest issue is to have the indifferent callousness of Snapchat management contaminate the tech industry, and its perception by the main public; I would actually relate that to the lack of outrage at Snowden’s revelation, and a couple more recent news on privacy: “Our personal information is violated, stolen? Whatever…” Snapchat would make ‘Silicon Valley’ part of that line. Admitting that this is unacceptable would help regain the general perception that personal information needs to be handled with care, generally is and that large brands can be trusted to protect it (be it from black-hats or unwarranted government officials) — yet again, I'm not sure we can read this in SnapChat’s message.

wellboy 13y ago

Cut the guy some slack, he also has to learn. Do you think you would have known straight away how to defend your company against the press, hackernews haters and how to apologize to millions of people when you were 23??

logn 13y ago
I wouldn't have bet $3,000,000,000 I did though.
jonlucc 13y ago
No, but I would also take a whitehat explaining a problem very seriously.

cheshire137 13y ago

Snapchat has always had the option to provide my mobile phone number in the iOS app so people can find me by my number. I've never filled it in because I was always uncomfortable giving out my phone number to some random app. When the data breach happened, I checked and my phone number was not in the leak. To clarify: the only way your phone number would be known by Snapchat and thus could have been leaked is if you provided it to Snapchat manually, correct?

jonlucc 13y ago
Not on Android. As far as I can tell, I never provided my number to Snapchat, aside from installing the app.
potatolicious 13y ago
Yes on iOS. No app can have access to your phone number unless you've explicitly given it. There is no 3rd-party API for "this device's number".
aeonsky 13y ago
They only leaked the most popular area codes. Do you have one of those?

xtc 13y ago

Opt-out should be default for this to be even relatively meaningful.

lotso 13y ago
User's had to opt-in to give Snapchat their phone number. I think this let's you opt-out, even if you had previously opted-in.
BlackDeath3 13y ago
So... opt-in?

onedev 13y ago

Too late, already deleted my account. It was a useless app anyway. I personally had no use for it. Friends would send me random stuff all the time but I honestly didn't care. It was usually mass chats anyway.