Snapchat offers a new social, technological feature that allows users to share Snaps on maps alongside their location. The ability for other users to view your location may sound disturbing, in terms of privacy, there are still some fantastic features that make Snap Map a great application for OSINT practitioners and research professionals.
In the content below, we explore Snap Map’s applications and features while we discuss how to activate Snap Map.
Snap Map Applications
On Snap Map, you can view Snaps submitted all across the globe, covering celebrations, events, news, and more. Snap is a dedicated camera brand offering a variety of imaging products and services. These services provide a fast and fun approach for users to express individual ideas, moments, and learn about the world through the pictorial views of other users.
For one, I recently used Snap Map to keep track of the daily happenings regarding the protests in Iraq. With Snap Maps, I was able to see developments on the ground in near real-time, even when the internet was shut down across the country. The ability to stay current about events unfolding on the round in near real-time is simply incredible in a day and age of information overload where sifting through news articles can be a daunting task.
Snap Map offers opt-in features, which implies users have full control over privacy. The Opt-in features offer vital safety importance in allowing users the ability to decide if they would like to share their location.
Additional Useful Features on Snap Map:
• Snaps – which lets users submit Snaps from any location.
• Stories – which contains several snaps about an event or location.
• Friends – view snaps from other users as well as shared locations.
• Explore – offers a secure method to share your journey and see what’s happening with friends.
Snap Map and OSINT
For OSINT practitioners and research professionals, Snap Map offers an incredible glimpse into the world around us and provides incredible moments-in-time during significant events that help tell the story of how events develop and unfold.
There are many other free platforms that offer features similar to Snap Map and they can be found on CID, a purpose-built research dashboard with thousands of resources. To learn more, sign up today by visiting us at the Echo Analytics Group Website.
How to Activate Snap Map’s Selective Audience Feature with Ghost Mode
With Snap Map, you can activate Ghost Mode features, which allows the user to turn off locations. Users can choose to share locations with all, or some selected friends. Ghost Mode comes as a standard feature on Snap Map. Here is a simple and quick way to activate and control the Ghost Mode feature on Snap.
Uploaded Snaps Do Not Include Usernames
Snaps shared on Snap Map do not display the username of the poster. Snap Map basically shows the user’s current location. What you will find though, is that most users sharing their location will tag their image or video with their location. The reason most users turn on their location services is that they want to advertise their location on the ground. However, be sure to cross-check the location a user posted on their image or video with the actual location their snap appears on the map. I have found that on several occasions users improperly tagged their location.
With Snap Map, It is Always to Share
It is vital to note once you opt-in, your selected audience for sharing snaps with are always able to see your updates. Snap Map undeniably makes sharing easier for individuals who share their views about different locations. This feature is a huge benefit to the platform because more publicly available data translates to stickiness on the platform.
Snap Map comes with several features, but the ultimate use lies with the user and what information you choose to share on the platform. Several thoughtful decisions on privacy and protection are required to help with proper usage.
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Buddy is a military veteran, former intelligence officer, and entrepreneur who teaches dozens of courses on a variety of intelligence-related topics. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Echo Analytics Group and is based in Tampa, Florida.
