Photo messaging application Snapchat, which was developed way back in 2011, is an application that ensured privacy in a way that photos would be deleted from the receiver's device as well as the company's server within 10 seconds. Snapchatters who fell for this myth and sent across private photos, here's a bad news for you.
What the app terms as the so-called Deleted Pictures are actually removed from the user's device completely. The app is written with an adjoined 'NOMEDIA' tag at the end of the files, which makes the pictures not show up to the user after the time limit. But, the images are cached in the device which can be cracked by the hackers or for any legal purposes. The images that are supposed to be deleted as per the user can actually be discovered in folder called RECEIVED_IMAGES_SNAPS.
The Utah-based, Decipher Forensics who pointed out this fact, charges about $300 - $500 for recovering photos from the app. The firm decodes the images for legal issues or for parents who spy on their kids. Not all the mobile platforms are open to this attack. As of now, the company can decrypt into Android, and are working on how to jack into iOS encryption.
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