Just how safe are your apps?

We all download apps without thinking of the consequences.

But that mobile app you just installed may end up breaching your privacy or flood you with spam.

Both popular instant messaging system SnapChat and Starbucks have been embarrassed by flaws in their security systems.

SnapChat’s popularity is due to the fact that people send each other photos and video messages that vanish seconds after the users view them.

Snapchat’s had multiple problems recently.

Phone numbers

It first had a data compromise, which exposed the usernames and phones numbers of at least 4.6 million users.

That was a huge problem considering one of the tenets of the company is it is helping protect people’s identities  and secrecy. 

Snapchat has been used to send racy or naughty photos and videos with the senders having some security in that after a few seconds they would disappear, but even that hasn’t happened in every case.

There are websites dedicated to purportedly leaked Snapchat photos.

This month Snapchat has had to deal with the fallout of its users being hit with spam.

On the company’s official blog, posted on January 13, Snapchat said: “We’ve heard some complaints over the weekend about an increase in Snap Spam on our service. 

“We want to apologize for any unwanted Snaps and let you know our team is working on resolving the issue. As far as we know, this is unrelated to the ‘Find Friends’ issue we experienced over the holidays. 

While we expect to minimize spam, it is the consequence of a quickly growing service. To help prevent spam from entering your feed, you can adjust your settings to determine who can send you Snaps. We recommend ‘Only My Friends’.

“We appreciate your patience and we’ll keep you posted.”

To reduce spam, users must go into the smartphone app’s settings and find the ‘Who Can...’ section. There, people can tap on ‘Send Me Snaps’ and on the next page they select ‘My Friends.’

While the app problem at Starbucks has less in impact on Bermuda residents than Snapchat, it is no less troubling. Last Thursday the coffee company had to push out an updated iOS mobile app.

The older version did not encrypt people’s data, including their e-mail information and their password. 

A hacker would then have to get a hold of the person’s iPhone to make a security breach. The Android app was safe from hacking, Starbucks said.