Snapchat was hacked on December 31, 2013.Gibson Security, an Australian security firm, had disclosed an API security vulnerability to the company on August 27, 2013,and then made public the source code for the exploit on Christmas Day (Australian time; Christmas Eve in the US).On December 27, Snapchat announced that it had implemented mitigating features.Nonetheless, an anonymous group hacked them, saying that the mitigating features presented only "minor obstacles".The hackers revealed parts of approximately 4.6 million Snapchat usernames and phone numbers on a website named "SnapchatDB.info"and sent a statement to the popular technology blog TechCrunch saying that their objective had been to "raise public awareness ... and ... put public pressure on Snapchat" to fix the vulnerability.Snapchat apologized a week after the hack.
In 2014, Snapchat settled a complaint made by the Federal Trade Commission. The government agency alleged that the company had exaggerated to the public the degree to which mobile app images and photos could actually be made to disappear. Under the terms of the agreement, Snapchat was not fined, but the app service agreed to have its claims and policies monitored by an independent party for a period of 20 years. The FTC concluded that Snapchat was prohibited from "misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of users' information." Following the agreement, Snapchat updated its privacy page to state that the company "can't guarantee that messages will be deleted within a specific timeframe."Even after Snapchat deletes message data from their servers, that same data may remain in backup for a certain period of time. In a public blog post, the service warned that "If you've ever tried to recover lost data after accidentally deleting a drive or maybe watched an episode of CSI, you might know that with the right forensic tools, it's sometimes possible to retrieve data after it has been deleted."
In September 2015, an 18-year-old was using a Snapchat feature called "Lens" to record the speed she was driving her Mercedes C230 when she crashed into a Mitsubishi Outlander in Hampton, Georgia. The 107 mph (172 km/h) crash injured both drivers. The driver of the Outlander spent five weeks in intensive care while he was treated for severe traumatic brain injury. In April 2016, the Outlander driver sued both Snapchat and the user of Snapchat, alleging that Snapchat knew its application was being used in unlawful speed contests, yet did nothing to prevent such use so is negligent. A similar collision while driving at 115 mph (185 km/h), occurred in Tampa, Florida in October 2016 that killed five people.
In 2016, Snapchat was sued by Canadian company for infringement on its geofiltering patent.The company, Investel Capital Corp., sued Snapchat for patent infringement. They were seeking "monetary compensation and an order that would prohibit California-based Snapchat from infringing on its patent in the future."
According to former Snapchat employee Anthony Pompliano in a lawsuit filed against Snap Inc., Spiegel made a statement in 2015 that Snapchat is "only for rich people" and that he does not "want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain".The incident sparked a Twitter trend called "#UninstallSnapchat", in which Indian users uninstalled the app, and caused backlash against the company in terms of low "one-star" ratings for the app in the Google Play store and Apple's App Store.Snapchat's shares fell by 1.5%.In response to the allegation, Snapchat called Pompliano's claim "ridiculous", and elaborated that "Obviously Snapchat is for everyone. It’s available worldwide to download for free".
The June 2017 release of "Snap Map", a feature that broadcasts the user's location on a map, was met with concerns over privacy and safety. The feature, though an opt-in, delivers a message asking if the user would like to show their position on the map, but reportedly doesn't explain the ramifications of doing so, including that the app updates the user's position on the map each time the app is opened and not just when actively capturing snaps, potentially allowing for stalkers. The map can be zoomed in to feature detailed geographical information, such as street addresses.The Daily Telegraph reported that police forces had issued child safety warnings while other media publications wrote that safety concerns were also raised for teenagers and adults unaware of the feature's actual behavior. In a statement to The Verge, a Snapchat spokesperson said that "The safety of our community is very important to us and we want to make sure that all Snapchatters, parents, and educators have accurate information about how the Snap Map works".Users have the ability to operate in "Ghost Mode", or select the friends that they wish to share their location with. Although there has been an increase in advertising on Snapchat, Snapchat has stated that they do not plan on running ads on Snap Map stories.
In November 2017, Snapchat announced a redesign, which proved controversial with many of its followers. CNBC's Ingrid Angulo listed some of the reasons why many disliked the update, citing that sending a snap and re-watching stories was more complicated, stories and incoming snaps were now listed on the same page, and that the Discover page now included featured and sponsored content. In February 2018, Kylie Jenner sent a tweet criticizing the redesign of the Snapchat app.The tweet reportedly caused Snap Inc to lose more than $1.3 billion in market value. Over 1.2 million people signed a Change.org petition asking the company to remove the new app update.
In March 2018, a poll about Rihanna was posted stating, "Would you rather punch Chris Brown or slap Rihanna?"Rihanna tweeted that Snapchat was "insensitive to domestic violence victims" and urged fans to delete Snapchat.