DUBAI, 22nd June, 2017 (WAM) -- The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, TRA, has warned against the new update of Snapchat for its photo messaging feature, the Snap Map.

The risks of automatically providing a map of the users location without their knowledge "may lead to unaccounted consequences and breaches that harm the privacy of individuals as well as other negative consequences of automatic detection of users locations at the time of using the application," the regulatory authority has said.

The new update allows the release of the geographical location of Snapchat users and exposes it to all users worldwide, not just to their friends. Under the update, any Snap connection through the App can be viewed as a point on an interactive map once the screen is pulled, and when clicking on any of the points, the image or scene is opened without informing the owners that their location has become exposed.

"To avoid this, you need to make a simple change to your app settings, which people may overlook," the TRA said. "A user who wants to be protected should modify the App setting by clicking the Next button on the screen, then clicking on the ghost mode me only, and then clicking Next. This way, any circulated Snap will not show the users location on the interactive map."

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2017.