Snapchat Releases Snap Map. Stalkers can now Snap, right onto you.

in life •  7 years ago  (edited)

Parents are being warned about Snapchat's new map feature over fears it could pose a risk to children.

The popular image messaging app, which has 10m daily users in the UK, has sparked privacy concerns after introducing the new tracking function.

The Snap Map feature allows people to see the exact location of their friends in real time.

Users can zoom in to see the exact town, street and even house or business where their friends are, the Birmingham Mail reports.

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Snapchat released the update saying: “We’ve built a whole new way to explore the world!

“See what’s happening, find your friends, and get inspired to go on an adventure!”

But some parents groups are concerned about privacy and worried about who can find out their exact location.

Snapchat-map (1).jpg

The update automatically has location sharing switched on unless users switch to "ghost mode".

Parents are being warned that this could pose a risk to youngsters and leave them exposed to predators.

Facebook page Social+ issued this warning: “Snapchat has introduced a new tracker in the update where you can view the exact location of your friends.

“It can give you the area, town, and street and if you zoom in enough, it shows the house on the street layout.

“Please share this to make people are aware, Snapchat has a lot of young users on, if your children are on please check that they have their location set to ‘ghost mode’, that way no one can see where they are.

“To do this make sure app is the updated version and go to selfie mode on the camera. Then zoom out.

"It will give you the option of changing to who can see your location.”

What are you thoughts on the new Snap Map?

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I think this is being blown a bit out of proportion. Of course, Snapchat could do a lot to allay people's fears by simply making ghost mode the default instead of the other way around.

Honestly, I think it did go a little out of proportion but if snapchat didn't make it auto-enabled it'd be a little safer. That way people would actually have to opt into this feature if they wanted to show their location.