Sex, Lies, or Kittens? Investigating the Use of Snapchat’s Self-Destructing Messages

Abstract

Abstract. The privacy-related Snapchat smartphone application allows users to share time-limited photos or videos, which "disappear" after a specified number of seconds once opened. This paper describes the results of a user survey designed to help us understand how and why people use the Snapchat application. We surveyed 127 adult Snapchat users, finding that security is not a major concern for the majority of these respondents. We learn that most do not use Snapchat to send sensitive content (although up to 25% may do so experimentally), that taking screenshots is not generally a violation of the sender's trust but instead common and expected, that most respondents understand that messages can be recovered, and that security and privacy concerns are overshadowed by other influences on how and why respondents choose to use or not use Snapchat. Nevertheless, we find that a non-negligible fraction (though not a majority) of respondents have adapted or would adapt their behavior in response to understanding Snapchat's (lack of) security properties, suggesting that there remains an opportunity for a more secure messaging application. We reflect on the implications of our findings for Snapchat and on the design of secure messaging applications.

On the Adoption of Privacy-enhancing Technologies

“…The shock occurs after time t = 5. The initial values, before the shock, are close to the values reported in Roesner [18]. Out of Snapchat's share-not the total share-1.5% use it for explicit messages only, compared to 1.6% in Roesner, and 13.2% use it for mixed content, compared to 14.2%.…”

“…For the competing technology, in the same order, we use the values 0.8, 1.2, and 1.44. These values were chosen so that the model roughly matches the values reported in Roesner et al [18]. The values for the explicit-only and mixed-content use contexts are less than the non-sensitive context.…”

“…First, we consider the recent dispute been Apple and the FBI [4], with the purpose of demonstrating how beliefs and requirements about privacy influence adoption. Second, we consider Snapchat (www.snapchat.com, accessed 03/03/2016), a picture-messaging app which promised that images were available only for brief periods time, but for which it transpired that images were in fact retained [18]. We use this example to demonstrate the role of context in privacy decision-making regarding the use of the technology.…”

“…Roesner et al [18] survey users of Snapchat, asking which types of content users send and how they feel about privacy. They give the breakdown of the study participants into Westin groups (39.4% fundamentalist, 45.7% pragmatist, 12.6% unconcerned) and report how many users primarily send sexual content (1.6%) and how many have sent sexual content (14.2%).…”

Obstacles to the Adoption of Secure Communication Tools

“…Furthermore, several studies have explored users' perceptions of email signatures [52], browser security indicators (e.g., [53], [54]), and specific features of specific security tools (e.g., selfdestructing messages in Snapchat [55]). …”