[Lewton]

Hm, yes... Let's ponder for a moment on why, when a data mining company sells a product that gives them access to a ton of private data, people are skeptical. While a company whose main product is built on the concept of deleting data, doing the same thing, gets a pass?

[trymas]

I would be extremely doubtful of that.

IMHO next step for snapchat is somewhere in AR and I bet that they are using data from their users for testing/training their face recognition. Also pictures/videos can be one of their assets for creating other features/products. Snapchat has ads, so data collection for ad targeting is extremely likely.

[Lewton]

My phrasing was a little muddy.

It's not really relevant whether Snapchat does data mining behind the scenes. But their brand is built upon ephemeral data. The exact opposite of Google.

It has nothing to do with "short memory" when the public reacts less creeped out than when google tried to push a similar product.