Snapchat can do anything with your content...or can it?

Popular messaging app Snapchat has updated its terms and conditions and now claims the right to reproduce, modify and republish any of your content.

“You grant Snapchat a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed),” the updated terms and conditions read.

Source: Twitter

Why does that matter?

Snapchat was one of the first to kick the self-destructing app trend into high gear. So it gained a pretty good reputation among privacy enthusiasts.

However, this update left people worried that every snap they sent could be stored and republished by Snapchat without their consent. Snapchat said it will share content with third parties or use it for other services – more specifically, content from Live Stories, a collection of crowdsourced snaps for a specific event or region.

“Because Snaps submitted to live and other crowd-sourced stories are inherently public and chronicle matters of public interest,” the policy says, “we may save them indefinitely and allow them to be viewed again through any of our services or third-party sources.”

Some users took Twitter to express outrage that their “snaps” may no longer be as private as they once were. “Scary” is one word being used by customers, along with threats to delete their accounts.

Are you considering giving up on Snapchat after this update?