When we add social networks, personal data and scandal, it's often Facebook that comes out of the hat. Once is not custom, Snapchat is facing a controversy. According to the US website Motherboard, employees of the social network has diverted internal software to collect the personal data of some users.
Illegally diverted data ...
This leak concerns email addresses, phone numbers, geolocation data and, most worryingly, snaps archived by users ("Memories"). A priori, nothing has been made public, but it still implies that people have all this data in their possession and can use it, to blackmail for example. When we know that Snapchat is one of the favorite social networks of young people, it can only encourage even more caution. We can not say it enough: do not post anything on social networks that you could regret, like naked or compromising photos.
That Snapchat employees have access to user data like this is completely illegal. The social network also mentions a clear violation of its internal rules and ensures that the culprits will be dismissed. "The protection of privacy is paramount," Snapchat said in a statement. "We have robust control policies and controls to limit data access internally."
... but legally collected
On the other hand, that Snapchat, as an entity, has this kind of personal data, it is not abnormal. In fact, Snapchat - but also Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, in short all the big social networks - collect a certain number of personal data in case the justice would claim them. These employees would have used the SnapLion software, which is used internally to retrieve data in court investigations, for personal use.
This point of law, often unknown to users, is nevertheless written in black and white under the conditions of use of social networks, for example at Facebook. If law enforcement or a court requires the data of a user in a criminal case, Facebook and consort are required to provide. It's still very much framed: the request must be legitimate and formulated as part of a process defined by law.
In general, it is when a person can represent a danger for others, for example a person in the process of radicalization or a criminal on the run. In this case, data from social networks can be used to neutralize or apprehend the person concerned.