Imagine the panic running through high-school cafeterias upon hearing this news. It turns out Snapchat, the app that sends and then automatically deletes pictures, doesn’t actually delete them. A digital forensics company discovered that the app actually saves the images to a hidden folder on the phone called RECEIVED_IMAGES_SNAPS. A file extension called “.NOMEDIA” keeps the images from being viewed, but the Decipher Forensics team has found a way to take the files off the phone and change the extension, making them viewable again. Fortunately, Decipher is currently charging $300 to $500 to extract the photos, so your parents will have to really want to see your sexts. Decipher only has a tool for Android phones, but they’re working on iPhones, as well as a way to trace photos back to the sender.
