Snapchat has become one of the most popular social networks among teens because it offers a level of privacy that other photo-swapping services don’t allow: If you send a picture via Snapchat, it’ll self-destruct in a few seconds.

According to an organization called Gibson Security, Snapchat has security loopholes that could expose users’ personal information to hackers. Worse, the organization published code of the security holes, making it easier for hackers to exploit them.

The code could allow malicious users to collect personal information from Snaphat’s 8 million users, including addresses and phone numbers. The collected information could be quite dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands and could facilitate stalking.

According to Gibson, Snapchat was made aware of the code’s potential weakness in August, but did nothing. (News.com.au)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.