Despite how issues could seem, Snapchat hasn’t discovered your birthday or birthplace by itself — you seemingly instructed it your self. The app’s precise information of the precise time, date, and placement of a customers beginning has been a problem of some concern for customers on Twitter and TikTok over the previous few days, nevertheless it’s as a result of Snapchat’s Astrological Profile feature and never some nefarious new ability the app has gained because it’s soared in recognition over the past yr.

You can view your “Astrological Birthday” within the settings part of Snapchat, and when you weren’t conscious you had already given the app all of that info, it could be a reasonably alarming discovery. Checking child pictures is not going to reveal that the Snapchat Hot Dog has been with you since beginning, nonetheless.

Image: hegotbanks

Snapchat tells The Verge that its Astrological Profile characteristic is the trigger:

The beginning date and time info proven above was truly inputted by the customers themselves as a way to acquire extra particular info, stemming from our newest astrological profiles characteristic. The characteristic requires precise beginning date and time from every particular person as a way to calculate their precise star chart studying.

We take the privateness of personally identifiable info very severely at Snap, and this extra granular beginning date and time info is used just for this astrological profile characteristic.

Snapchat launched Astrological Profiles in November 2020 as a means for customers to share and evaluate horoscopes on their Stories and test their relative compatibility with pals. You already shared your birthday with Snapchat once you made a profile, the brand new astrological options simply took it a step additional to ask for the time and placement of your beginning.

A facet impact of letting Snapchat play astrologer is that the app now has the total particulars of your birthday and birthplace saved within the “Birthday” part of settings as “My Astrological Birthday.” Snapchat doesn’t share any beginning info until you need it to (at most that might be your beginning date with pals) and you’ll delete that particular beginning time and placement info at any time with a faucet. None of those particular person items of knowledge are significantly damaging on their very own, however it is a good illustration of how apps can gather details about you over time, even when it is by no means meant to be shared or essentially utilized by the app in any respect.

Chalk this confusion up extra to Snapchat having plenty of (admittedly enjoyable) options which are simple to overlook about, and never the truth that technically, based mostly on when Snapchat was originally launched as Picaboo, it’s a Cancer. It’s a complete Cancer transfer in any other case.