 "Snapchat updates app, apologises for hack that exposed 4.6 million users")
As the age old adage goes, it’s better late than never. Snapchat has finally issued an apology a week after a leak put details of 4.6 million users online. Along with the apology, Snapchat has released an update which lets you opt out of the option of finding friends from within the app. In a blog post titled Find Friends Improvements, Snapchat tendered an apology for the leak that caused a privacy uproar. “We are sorry for any problems this issue may have caused you and we really appreciate your patience and support,” the team wrote. It added that the team was continuing to make improvements to the service in order to prevent any future attempts to abuse the API. Snapchat also announced the release of an update for its apps on Android and iOS that improves the Find Friends functionality. Essentially, with this new update, you can opt out of linking your mobile number with your username. To make use of this option, you can head on to Settings and then Mobile number within the application. If you’re an existing Snapchat user, you can delink your mobile number from your username, thereby reducing the risk of your data being abused. New Snapchat users, on the other hand, will have to verify their phone numbers before using the Find Friends service now. This Find Friends service was behind the leak events in the past week or so. The beginning of the year started with a bang Snapchat was not expecting. Post warnings by Gibson Security, a security firm earlier last year, a group named SnapchatDB managed to leak usernames and partial phone numbers of 4.6 million Snapchat users and post them on the Internet. The hackers were able to gain these details thanks to a flaw in the Find Friends feature of Snapchat. While Snapchat had acknowledged the hack and promised a safer app in the future, it did not explicitly apologise or announce when the app would arrive with changes. Snapchat seems to have addressed both these issues with its new blog post.
Intrigued by all things social, Nishtha will invariably tweet about you. When not tweeting or writing about the next viral video, you will hear her proclaiming her love to Metallica, James Hetfield, Opeth, Akerfeldt and all bands that go 'growl'. She also obsesses about ACP Pradyuman and South Park and you will always find her moving around with a book. Her focus is on all the happening stuff in the tech domain, and she won't hesitate to take a shot at some of the oddball devices that make their way to our labs.