Law professor Woodrow Hartzog comments on the recent privacy breach involving Snapchat. As most readers know by now, Snapchat claimed that the leak of images was not a breach of their systems and resulted from users using third-party apps like SnapSaved. Snapchat defended itself by saying that it had warned users not to use such apps and had also taken steps to get such apps removed.
Woody writes, in part:
While it’s true that everyone must exercise caution online and take responsibility for good data security, placing all of the blame on users for this breach is misguided. Good data security means effectively educating users so they can work with companies to protect information. Two crucial lessons from this hack and the response to it must be incorporated in the US’s evolving approach to the law and policy of data security. First, companies must educate their users about risks in regular language, not boilerplate legalese. Second, technologies that promise relative privacy must provide better data security than traditional social media.
Read more on his column on Wired.