Oops: iOS 7 lets users secretly take Snapchat screenshots

Yikes

Snapchat
(Image credit: Facebook/Snapchat)

Snapchat, the ephemeral-photo-messaging app that deletes images after you send them to friends, just became a little less secure. A bug spotted in iOS 7 beta allows users to secretly take screenshots without setting off any alarms. That means any and all naughty pictures are up for grabs if someone you're Snapchatting with is testing the latest version of iOS, at least according to MacRumors.

Snapchat allows photo-takers to set a self-destruct timer for each of their photos. To view the shot, the recipient has to keep a finger pressed down on his or her phone's screen. In previous versions of iOS, if someone pressed the home and power buttons to take a screenshot, that connection between the screen and the finger was interrupted, and the viewing window closed. Snapchat would then notify the sender that an "illegal" photo was saved.

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.