In the News
In Instagram won’t alert people if you screenshot their stories, Ashley Carman discuses Instagram’s decision to not let people know when their Instagram story has been captured and saved. Carman explains that the decision to not notify individuals of a screenshot is opposite of the feature on Snapchat, which lets the poster know who has captured their story.
Our Take
Snapchat’s feature notifying users of screenshots is somewhere just short of read receipts in terms of its invasiveness–we all like to be able to take the actions we want to in the privacy of our own devices without having to announce it to our friends. Yet this discomfort that we feel when we trigger the notification is the discomfort of having underscored how little privacy we truly have when we share something, even so-called temporarily, on the Internet. While not having such a feature allows individuals on Instagram to feel less uncomfortable at their own and others’ screenshotting habits, it does not help them be less exposed when they overshare online.
Recommendations
How can you protect your personal information on social media sites?
- Understand the risks of putting your personal information into the world–even if it supposedly disappears shortly thereafter
- Remember that things posted online have a very large audience, and not always the one you originally intended
Take care when saving information that could affect the privacy of others: if you don’t need it, don’t keep it