Fact check: Snapchat only knows your time of birth if you entered it yourself

Devon Link, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Snapchat now knows users' time of birth

Does Snapchat somehow know what time you were born?

That's the claim in one viral Facebook post.

“Did anybody know that Snapchat somehow knows what time you were born. Swear I don’t remember filling it out,” says an Aug. 2 Facebook post.

In less than 24 hours, the post was shared roughly 10,000 times. Other Facebook users expressed privacy concerns and speculated that the data revealed the government was responsible.

“I dont even know the time I was born, snapchat knows me more than I know me, it's that government,” one user commented.

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Snapchat does know some users’ time and place of birth, but that is only because the users entered that information into the app. This post misrepresents Snapchat’s astrological features, which prompts users to input time, date and place of birth to look up their charts.

USA TODAY reached out to the poster for comment.

Data is only available via user input

If users want to use the app's astrological features, they have to enter their birth time, date and place to generate an accurate star chart. Snapchat announced the new features on Nov. 12, 2020.

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In a statement to USA TODAY, Snap's group product manager, Jeremy Voss, said birth date, time and location information “can only be inputted by the users themselves” in the app.

“We take the privacy of personally identifiable information very seriously at Snap, and this more granular birth date and time information is only used for this astrological profile feature,” the statement read. “The users who wrote these social posts may not remember inputting the information, but do have the option to delete it from Settings > Birthday.”

According to Voss, Snapchat does not share users’ age or birth information with other users or other parties on an individual level.

Users’ birthdays are visible to their friends in the app, however, that feature can be turned off in the settings. Snapchat communicates users' birthdays to their friends by adding a birthday cake emoji next to their usernames on that day.

Our rating: Missing context

We rate the claim that Snapchat now knows users' time of birth MISSING CONTEXT, because it is misleading when presented on its own. The Snapchat app does have data on some users' time, date and place of birth, but that is only because those users entered that information into the astrological profile feature. Snapchat confirmed that information is only available in the app if the user inputs it.

Our fact-check sources:

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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Snapchat only knows your time of birth if you entered it

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