MY STORY:

On January 15, 2020, an unknown person hacked my friends account and posed as them. They were able to receive my Snapchat password, and they locked me out of my account. They had access to all of my “Memories,” a feature Snapchat encourages its users to utilize to store content, and therefore access to personal images, screenshots, and most pictures that I have taken on Snapchat in the past few years. The hacker then sent messages to my friends telling them to tell me to talk to them from a new account.

The hacker then continued to threaten me and provide ultimatums. Give them my “My Eyes Only” password and they would give me my Recovery Code, they would not hack my friends, they would not post images on my Public Story, they would not post my images on a Revenge P*rn website, etc..

My “My Eyes Only” included sensitive, explicit, and most of all personal content, so I did not give them the password. They then proceeded to post semi-nude images of me from my “Memories” on my Public Snapchat Story, and I do not know what they did with any of the other images, whether they are saved to their phone and shared with their friends or posted publicly on the Internet.

I acknowledge that this is Sexual Harassment and Cyberbullying. In some photos, I am under the age of 18, which borders Child P*rnography.

I filed out the Snapchat Report form right as they sent me the first threat, asking for access back to my account or for the account to be deleted. Almost 12 hours later, I have received no reply. There is no helpline to call and nothing I can do. I have filed a police report, but that too is to no avail in these complicated and tricky times.

Every time I changed the password, they changed it back. They set up a new Two-Factor Authentication and refuse to give me the Recovery Code. They have access to all my personal content, and I feel violated and helpless.

SUMMARY:

Snapchat is a growing social media platform catering internationally to people as young as 13. With new features like “Memories” and “My Eyes Only,” introduced, many users store private and personal information, images, and more under the impression that it is safe.

Although there are new protective features Snapchat has implemented, such as Two-Factor Authentication, accounts still continue to get compromised - thus private information and content is compromised, which can be unsafe, especially for minors. Snapchat does not have any sort of widely-known 24-hour helpline and does not provide a time frame for responding to filed reports through their Support platform.

In the case that an account is compromised or hacked into, or in the case of some Emergency, there should exist a way to quickly delete said account.

This may present itself as a 24-hour callable helpline, an Emergency report form that will be responded to within a few hours, or something else. This platform should be available remotely and accessible to someone who does not have their phone.

GOAL:

I hope to protect future Snapchat users, especially minors who might not know of additional authentication features, by pushing Snapchat to create a way for users to Delete a Compromised Account in case of Emergency or a special scenario like mine. I wish that everyone’s personal content within the application is protected. The same way a credit card can be canceled if it falls into the wrong hands, a Snapchat account should be able to be quickly deleted should it do the same.

Thank you for your time and support!

**I also think that Recovery Codes and Authentication Features should be more widely publicized.**