Cyber crimes unit warns of new Snapchat mapping feature

The popular smartphone app Snapchat released a new update last week that now allows users to share their exact locations with friends.

“At first I thought it was kind of cool, because you could see where everybody is at, but that’s also kind of creepy,” said Sandon Scott, a Snapchat user and junior at Mizzou.

Detective Tracy Perkins with the Boone County Cyber Crimes Task Force said their unit just began learning the new feature this week. She said the GPS coordinates on the map are very accurate.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they’re going to throw something out like this,” she said. “We started testing it just to see and understand it.”

Snap Map can be set to three different privacy settings found in the upper right-hand corner of the feature. The update is automatically set at “Ghost Mode,” meaning the user’s location is not being shared. Users can also choose between sharing their location with just their friends on Snapchat or just select friends on the app.

“I feel like it is invading privacy, but then again you have the option to be hidden,” said Nicholas Rodriguez, another Snapchat user. “So then again, it’s not really hidden because the choice is yours.”

Other Snapchat users said the update made them double check who they were friends with on the app.

“I’m not concerned,” said Brendan McConnell.”It’s definitely a little weird, but it actually made me look at my friends to see if I knew all of them.”

Several Snapchat users ABC 17 News spoke with Thursday said they would likely keep the Snap Map feature on “Ghost Mode” or on the option to share their location with just friends.

Perkins is advising parents with children who use the app to put their location sharing option on “Ghost Mode.”

“If you’re going to allow your child to use the Snapchat, understand what settings that the app has to offer and what’s the pros and the cons,” she said. “There’s really no pros to having it on.”

A Snapchat spokesperson gave the following statement to ABC 17 News Thursday regarding the Snap Map update:

“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. With Snap Map, location-sharing is off by default for all users and is completely optional. Snapchatters can choose exactly who they want to share their location with, if at all, and can change that setting at any time. It’s also not possible to share your location with someone who isn’t already your friend on Snapchat, and the majority of interactions on Snapchat take place between close friends.”

Snapchat said it will periodically remind users who choose to share their location with All Friends on the app to make sure they are still comfortable with the setting.

Perkins said the location update is a good reminder to check your settings for all smartphone app updates.

“Go back into that app and make sure your settings are set the same as private, or hidden or however you want it to be set,” she said. “But make sure that it hasn’t changed and defaulted to public.”