It would be very easy to read that headline and get scared. We all know even the most well-behaved of us don’t always take the most “appropriate for mass viewing” pics with our Snapchats, but don’t worry. It’s not as scary as it sounds.
Essentially, Team Snapchat (which is the name of the faceless people behind-the-scenes at the app who see all your creepy and kinky stuff) are linking up the “Our Story” feature of the app to the feed in Times Square. Out Story is Snapchat, but as oppose to being shared with one person, is shared with everyone on the app. Here’s more:
A team of Snapchat curators will stitch together photos and videos from the app’s users at celebrations in Dubai, New York City, St. Petersburg, Russia, and other posts around the world to create a documentarylike view of how people are experiencing New Year’s Eve. (The photos and videos will be included only if users give their permission.)
So in a word, no. You don’t need to worry about that one pic you took at the donkey show this year magically appearing in Times Square tonight. That being said, I’d say it’s still safe to assume some people will try to horribly abuse this, and it will be curious to see what odd or traumatizing things we may see tonight on the jumbotron in NYC. Snapchat will be curating the whole thing to prevent any PR disasters, but come on. Anything is possible, right? It’s New Year’s Eve, after all. Might as well dream big.