Over 200,000 explicit images sent by users of social networking app SnapChat could be leaked tomorrow, following a threat by hackers.
Photos sent through SnapChat usually disappear within seconds but many use third-party apps such as SnapSave to take a screenshot of the image and save it to their phones.
It is understood that the hackers gained access to the images through these apps and have now threatened to release them online in a post to 4Chan. They claimed that the nude photos and videos will be published in a searchable dataset on October 12th but many have speculated that the threat could be a hoax.
In a statement, Snapchat confirmed that it had not been hacked and said it regularly took action against apps such as SnapSave.
“We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks. Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users’ security.
“We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed.”
