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Why We Should Celebrate Snapchat and Encourage Ephemeral Communication

Posted by samzenpus on from the get-off-my-lawn dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Within a few months of launching, Snapchat has made an enormous and lasting impact on the culture of communication on the Internet – and we should all be grateful. They have simplified a security process enough to the point that anybody can use it, while validating the market of the next generation of privacy-preserving ephemeral communication. Most importantly, we may finally get a break from the forced permanence of the Facebook and Google world, where everything you do and share is a data point to be monetized and re-sold to the highest bidder."

10 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. What and what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > privacy-preserving ephemeral communication. Most importantly, we may finally get a break from the forced permanence

    If it's transmitted in the clear and displayed on a screen, it is neither privacy-preserving nor ephemeral.

    1. Re: What and what? by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So you can't trust them not to spread your picture but you can trust them to not download a bypass and then spread your picture?

      That's not a contradiction. You are looking at the problem in a single moment of time.

      Alice trusts Today Bob enough today to not bypass the software OR spread the picture. Alice does not trust that Tomorrow Bob will not spread the picture.

      By preventing Today Bob from preserving a copy of the picture, Tomorrow Bob will have no picture to disseminate. Tomorrow Bob cannot alter Today Bob's software. Why would Today Bob be trusted but Tomorrow Bob not be trusted? A nasty breakup could occur between Today and Tomorrow.

      If this system were broken by design, then you might want to inform the DoD and the whole process of security 'reading in, and reading out' with regard to access to information. You trust the person today to not make copies of classified information, you also trust them to not attempt to circumvent software controls. That doesn't mean you trust them later, to not want to pass on that information, but you take precautions TODAY to ensure that they don't retain that information in case they change their minds later.

      In short: It is possible to trust and not trust a single entity, when the periods of trust and not trust are distinct moments in time.

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  2. Snap What? by Cornwallis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Snapchat has made an enormous and lasting impact..."

    And this is the first I've heard of it.

    1. Re: Snap What? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Me too. And I still don't know wtf it is, or why I should care.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:Snap What? by dyfet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed. At least cryptocat I had heard about...never heard of this ever before. Sounds like self-promotion by a private commercial entity...and then there is this about it (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat)

      "...In May 2013, Forbes reported that the photos do not actually disappear, and that they can still be retrieved even after their time limit had expired.[6]..."

      Oops...maybe your snapchat really is only shared with your friends and every three letter agency in the book?! :)

  3. Snapchats Don't Disappear - deleted photos found by dyfet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do they reconcile their claims with "Snapchats Don't Disappear: Forensics Firm Has Pulled Dozens of Supposedly-Deleted Photos From Android Phones" - http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/05/09/snapchats-dont-disappear/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

    "A 24-year-old forensics examiner from Utah has made a discovery that may make some Snapchat users think twice before sending a photo that they think is going to quickly disappear. Richard Hickman of Decipher Forensics found that it’s possible to pull Snapchat photos from Android phones simply by downloading data from the phone using forensics software and removing a “.NoMedia” file extension that was keeping the photos from being viewed on the device. He published his findings online and local TV station KSL has a video showing how it’s done ..."

    Opps...sounds closer to fraudsters

  4. The Slashdot Trifecta by water-and-sewer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "We should be grateful" the summary says.

    Well I for one am grateful that we seem to have hit the Slashdot trifecta: (1) Obvious, blatant slashvertisement intended to showcase some product noone's ever heard of, (2) link to a site behind a paywall, and (3) Web 2.0 product that somehow involves social and tracking and profile building, something I would want no part of.

    Do I win? And if so, do I get my money back?

    --
    If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
  5. Wait, what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    in the actual fuck is ..

  6. Did Snapchat write this story? by bignetbuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This "stories" has all the hallmarks of some marketing dribble written by Snapchat. It has the right buzzwords, is full of itself, and touts some silly app as the future of the Internet.

    When did Slashdot sell its soul and start accepting stories from companies?

  7. Re:broken link by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    From reading the synopsis, all I can say is:

    WOW...this is amazing!! I cannot believe such a world changing thing has become available to the public!!!!

    By the way, what is snapchat?

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