SNAPCHAT knows more about you than you might think.
Fans of the U.S. social media app are often shocked to find that Snapchat suddenly knows where and what time they were born.
1) Does Snapchat know what time I was born?
In some cases, Snapchat knows what time you were born – but only if you provided the app with that information yourself.
The trouble is, many users forget having plugged in the time, date and location at which they were born while setting up a feature.
They are then are later shocked to find that information on the app, even though they put it there in the first place.
Hundreds took to Twitter in July 2021 to highlight the information available in Snapchat’s settings.
People checking their date of birth there found that where they were born and what time was displayed under “My Astrological Birthday.”
The information freaked out app users, who branded the app’s accuracy “weird” and “really creepy.”
And Snapchatters have been confused as to how the app gathered that information in the first place.
However, the real reason is not as sinister as the fans have been suggesting.
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2. How does Snapchat know where I was born?
Snapchat explained that users likely put their birthdays into the app when astrological profiles were launched.
The Astrological Profile is a series of Snaps that cover the ten planets and an Astrology Profile Summary.
You can send these Snaps to your friends, post to your Story, and save them to your camera roll.
To use the feature, you’re asked for information about when and where you were born.
A spokesperson said: “The birthdate and time information shown above was actually inputted by the users themselves in order to obtain more specific information, stemming from our latest astrological profiles feature.”
3. What is the Astrological Birthday feature?
The Astrological Birthday feature is an update which was released by Snapchat in November 2020.
It generates a 12-page horoscope from the app for users – but only if you input your time and place of birth.
Users frequently forget that they provided this information, and have now spotted that the app stores this information in settings.
4. Can I delete this information from Snapchat?
You can remove information about your time and place of birth at any time in the app’s settings.
But those whose information is stored won’t be sold to any outside parties so there isn’t much to worry about.
However the app may share your birthday with your friends on the exact day.
A Snapchat spokesperson said: “We take the privacy of personally identifiable information very seriously at Snap, and this more granular birthdate and time information is used only for this astrological profile feature.”
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk