Snapchat shows people where you are and what you're doing
The app's new feature has received widespread criticism
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Your support makes all the difference.Snapchat’s newest feature triggered major privacy fears when it launched last week, but it reveals even more about you than previously thought.
Snap Map doesn’t just show other users exactly where you are. It also shows them what you’re doing.
Snapchat is using data like your location, your speed of travel and your phone usage to figure out if you’re sleeping, driving, listening to music or even on a flight.
Once it knows, it shares this information with other users through your ‘Actionmoji’, a cartoon avatar that can be personalised to look like you.
The Snap Map interactive map can be launched by pinching the Snapchat camera home screen, and it’s precise enough to show not only which street you’re on, but whereabouts on that street you are too.
The feature has received widespread criticism, with Snapchat users and parents arguing that it could expose children to potential predators, and even let criminals know when you’re out of the house or on holiday.
Fortunately, the app lets you opt out of sharing your location, with ‘Ghost Mode’.
However, though it hides you from the map, it still allows you to track any of your friends who haven’t enabled Ghost Mode.
Parents have been urged to make sure their children switch Ghost Mode on.
“Snapchat has a lot of young users on, if your children are on please check that they have there [sic] location set to Ghost mode, that way no one can see where they are,” reads a post that’s been widely shared on Facebook.
Snap Map also lets you see areas where lots of content is being uploaded to Snapchat, usually because of an event.
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