Security flaw found in app used for 'safe sexting'

Snapchat, the smartphone app widely regarded as being "sexting friendly", exposed users' email addresses since at least mid-December until the flaw was fixed on Thursday.

Many users of the service create usernames unrelated to their identity but also use their personal email addresses when registering, which put their anonymity in doubt while the flaw was active.

The revelation of users' email addresses being exposed comes as security experts have figured out a way to capture videos sent via Snapchat and rival app Facebook Poke before they self-destruct. Experts also warn that not many Snapchat users are aware that people can see who they have been chatting to on the service by typing a forward slash and their username after the snapchat.com URL in a web browser (i.e. snapchat.com/username).