Ghost Mode

“I also asked them to disable their locations on their phones when it wasn’t necessary,” added Al Rahbi. “If you think there are people who will stalk you, enable the ghost mode yourself because then no one can see you.”

Al Rahbi’s warnings were echoed by Ahmed Al Balushi, a fashion designer who has about 3,500 people tune into his Snapchat broadcasts every day.

“Whoever doesn’t know about Ghost Mode needs to be aware of it,” said Al Balushi.

“This is against our culture because Snapchat wants us to be connected at all times, but sometimes, we all want our privacy, especially for people who have large audiences.

“If you see someone abusing the Ghost Mode, tell them about the legal threats and don’t hesitate to go to court or the legal authorities because they will be able to find them out and this could mean they have a black mark on their records,” he added.

The Times of Oman also received clarification on this from Dr. Ali Al Shidhani, director of research at The Research Council.

Apps

“I think whenever you subscribe to any of these apps, you are giving away a bit of your privacy because when Whatsapp was bought by Facebook for example, their privacy policy stated that some of your Whatsapp information would be accessible to Facebook,” he said.

“We have invested a lot of time and effort into these apps and they are now part of our lives so we just can’t give them up.”

“When you enable your location, you gain access to so many features, such as traffic information and the easiest routes to take via Google Maps, and revealing your location is part of the bigger picture, where you could be harmed if someone knew your financial information, family history etc,” added Al Shidhani. “Therefore, if someone else is activating Ghost Mode, you could activate it as well so no one can track you.”