Schools on Snapchat are a public place warning

[DrPopkorne]

I've just been shown a new location feature on Snapchat that I thought could be of concern for some Education folk, you may want to have a look and see if your school is involved.

 

So with the new stories feature, your location data can pin snaps to actual places nearby as a sort of 'social hub', and it would seem schools (I can see ours and two primary schools in my nearby list) are included as a 'place' so anyone in the area or who searches for the school can view everything anyone with the option checked has sent. Whether a student has set this up or Snapchat I'm not sure however it does list as an actual school in the app rather than a user-created geofilter. Strangely we also have the old name of the school from 8 years ago listed that no student or staff member would name it.. so it makes you think.

 

I don't use snapchat so won't have any mutual friends with these snappers however my device instantly picked up my location as our Academy and there were hundreds of snaps sent by students going back to around exam results period that I could see. Some of them they probably aren't aware it's been shared this way and there appears to be snaps from locals living in the houses nearby under the same list that likely wouldn't have manually set to send snaps to the school unless it's done automatically by location.

 

The worries around this are obvious, and unlike the worries around the Snap Map earlier in the year this will share it with anyone, not just 'Friend of a Friend'. Our SSO has advised we can lawfully get our school taken off the list of geofilter places by contacting snapchat at [email protected] or using their support twitter @snapchatsupport.

Edited October 11, 2017 by DrPopkorne