Snapchat responds to privacy scares by letting users unlink their phone number

Snapchat has just taken its first steps toward addressing the exploits that led to a leak of 4.6 million phone numbers late last year. Updates to its Android and iOS apps now let you opt out of linking your phone number to your username, preventing others from easily finding you. The company is also reducing the chances for abuse by requiring that you verify your phone number when using Find Friends. They're not perfect remedies by any means -- we're sure that some would prefer that phone number use is opt-in rather than opt-out, for instance. Snapchat says it's working on more improvements, though, so it's at least aware that there's more work to do before its users can truly feel at ease.