Snapchat, a mobile photo-messaging app created for wiping out traces of the messages for privacy reasons, this week was hit with a major breach of its users' privacy that exposed names and phone numbers of some 4.6 million of its customers. The data dump came after security researchers published a proof-of-concept for a weakness associated with the "Find Friends" feature.

The app provider late Thursday announced that it would update Snapchat to better protect its users. "We will be releasing an updated version of the Snapchat application that will allow Snapchatters to opt out of appearing in Find Friends after they have verified their phone number. We’re also improving rate limiting and other restrictions to address future attempts to abuse our service," Snapchat said in a blog post.

Snapchat also said researchers could email the firm at [email protected] for any vulnerability discoveries. "We want to make sure that security experts can get a hold of us when they discover new ways to abuse our service so that we can respond quickly to address those concerns. The best way to let us know about security vulnerabilities is by emailing us: [email protected]," Snapchat said.

The blog post came in response to criticism by the researchers who first reported and then published details on the flaw in Snapchat's app after saying they had not gotten a response from Snapchat. A hacker group on Wednesday exploited the flaw and posted online to a site called SnapchatDB the names and phone numbers, with the final two digits obscured, on some 2.6 million Snapchat users.

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