Social media phenomenon Snapchat has introduced an addition to its app called Snap Map, which allows users to locate one another on an interactive map in real time.

“Snap Map lets you share your real-time location, which your friends can view on an interactive map that’s precise enough to show not only which street you’re on, but whereabouts you are on that street too,” said a Snapchat spokesperson.

Although the app’s new feature is innovative and exciting to some, others have already expressed grave concern about the privacy issues that Snap Map could present.

Snapchat offered this warning to its users about its new feature.

“Snapchat has introduced a new tracker in the update where you can view the exact location of your friends. It can give you the area, town, and street and if you zoom in enough, it shows the house on the street layout.

Please Share this to make people are aware, snapchat has a lot of young users on, if your children are on please check that they have their location set to Ghost mode, that way no one can see where they are. To do this make sure app is the updated version and go to selfie mode on the camera. Then zoom out. It will give you the option of changing to who can see your location.”

However, despite the need for a warning, Snap Map is a feature that Snapchat users can opt out of or perhaps never us at all.

“The first time you enter Snap Map, you choose who to share your location with. We won’t show you on the Map before then!” Snapchat Support tweeted out shortly after Snap Map’s release.

Snap Map gives its users ultimate control. The settings within the app can be configured for location-sharing for all friends, a select group of friends, or no one at all.

Snapchat released this statement about Snap Map and its features:

“We’ve built a whole new way to explore the world! See what’s happening, find your friends, and get inspired to go on an adventure! It’s easy to get started — just pinch to zoom out and view the Map! You decide if you want to share your location with friends, or simply keep it to yourself with Ghost Mode. If your friends are sharing their location with you, their Actionmoji will appear on the Map. Actionmojis only update when you open Snapchat. We hope you enjoy the new Map as much as we do!”

A Snapchat representative also confirmed that is users choose to share their location on the Map then their location will be updated every time they open the app. Their friends can tap on a user’s Actionmoji on the Snap Map to find out when their location was last updated. The last location is automatically deleted if users don’t open the app for more than eight hours.