Sixty minutes. That’s how long it took for a private Snapchat message to travel from Kristen Volpe’s phone to the FBI to the deputies standing in her elementary school hallway. On January 29, 2025, the 22-year-old student teacher at John L. Hensey Elementary in Washington, Illinois, vented to her boyfriend and two roommates — three people total — after a student closed her laptop mid-class and wiped her lesson plan. She referenced shooting the student or the school. She meant it as a frustrated joke. Snapchat’s algorithm didn’t get the humor.
No student reported her. No parent. No coworker. The flag was entirely automated. Snapchat’s policy permits voluntary emergency disclosures to law enforcement — no warrant required — when the platform determines imminent harm exists. The algorithm makes that initial call. Think of it like your Ring doorbell deciding to call 911 on its own, except the doorbell is reading your text messages.
Microphones in the hotel? No need, you carry them in your pocket almost 24/24. There are some in your car. Even if you don’t have a smartphone, a nice combo of PervGlasses and surrounding phones will be sufficient to get what you’re venting about, so that law enforcement can protect the society from your darkest jokes…
And by the time this is implemented, piece by piece, the very same people claiming it’s acceptable/a good thing will totally agree with the processing: you should mind what you say around people, or alone.