Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Hacker Finds Easy Way to Secretly Save SnapChat Pictures

Hacker Finds Easy Way to Secretly Save SnapChat Pictures

by Samantha Murphy, mashable.com
January 22nd 2013 9:01 PM

A kink within the controversial SnapChat app may let users secretly capture screen shots of private pictures without notifying the sender.

Although SnapChat has developed a reputation as being a sext-friendly platform — allowing people to share sexy or naked pictures before it's automatically deleted a few seconds later — and Facebook has been experimenting with a similar private photo platform with its Poke app, senders are typically notified when the recipient takes a screen shot of the image as a part of a security measure.

But according to University of Michigan student and hacker Raj Vir — and first reported by TechCrunch, it's easy to sneak screen shots of incoming images without the sender knowing.

"I was curious about how SnapChat detects screen shots and discovered they aren't as secure as you'd think," Vir told Mashable. "If you are a SnapChat user, you just assume it's protected, but it's not that hard to get around."

After taking a screen shot of a picture sent via the SnapChat app, Vir said users can double tap the home button to bring up the multi-tasking bar.

"While taking a screen shot by holding the home and power button at the same time, keep a finger on the screen to hold the picture. When you let go and see the snaps section again, tap the home button twice before the picture disappears," Vir said. "This cancels SnapChat's detection and you can view the picture on your phone as many times as you want."

Vir said there are other ways to get around it too, such as putting the phone in standby mode by making it sleep, and logging in and out of the app to turn on Airplane Mode.

"This work-around occurs because Snapchat isn't officially supported by Apple, so it's a hack in the first place," he said. "Although Facebook does it differently for its Poke app, you can force quit the app and take screen shots this way with Poke too."

Does this hack make you hesitant to use Snapchat or similar apps? Share in the comments.

Photo via iStockphoto, 101dalmatians

Original Page: http://pocket.co/sGvwJ

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