Snapchat refutes claims it is stockpiling users' photos

Snapchat has responded to the backlash against its new privacy policy, claiming that snaps and chats sent on the service are just as private as they were before the update.

Last week, the company updated its terms of service, stating that it has a "worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display" any content you upload to the app, "in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed)".

The new terms would seem to imply that the photos people take and the messages they send could theoretically appear on Snapchat's promotional material, on its website, or even its social media accounts.

The changes led to an outcry on Twitter, with many describing the new privacy policy as "scary" or "spooky".

However, Snapchat has now responded, insisting that it is not stockpiling users' private photos or chats, nor is it sharing them with advertisers or business partners.

"The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update. Our Privacy Policy continues to say – as it did before – that those messages 'are automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired'," the company said in a statement.

Its post claims the changes reflected new features like Live Stories, for which a license would allow public Snaps to be distributed to users more widely.

"It’s true that our Terms of Service grant us a broad license to use the content you create – a license that’s common to services like ours. We need that license when it comes to, for example, Snaps submitted to Live Stories, where we have to be able to show those Stories around the world – and even replay them or syndicate them (something we’ve said we could do in previous versions of our Terms and Privacy Policy).

"But we tried to be clear that the Privacy Policy and your own privacy settings within the app could restrict the scope of that license so that your personal communications continue to remain truly personal."

The company added that its main reason for revising its privacy policy and terms of use was to remove the jargon, "so that they’d read the way people actually talk". It said this was part of an attempt to "more upfront and clear with our community".

The new terms also enable Snapchat to sell "replays" on messages, paving the way for new paid and promoted content – something that Snapchat will need if it is to eventually achieve profitability. Snapchat is currently valued at $16bn (£10bn).