Snapchat released an update to its app on Thursday in response to a security breach that exposed millions of user accounts at the start of the new year.
The update gives users the ability to opt out of having their phone numbers linked to their user names as part of the Find Friends feature. In the blog post announcing the update, the company also finally apologized to users for the episode.
"Our team continues to make improvements to the Snapchat service to prevent future attempts to abuse our API," the company wrote in the blog post. "We are sorry for any problems this issue may have caused you and we really appreciate your patience and support."
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel (pictured, above) had previously expressed frustration with the security breach, but notably did not apologize.
Some 4.6 million user names and phone numbers leaked online by hackers who took advantage of a recently published Snapchat API exploit. Snapchat had been warned by one security group of potential risks days before the breach, but downplayed the issue in a blog post.
Two days later, Snapchat and its CEO responded by promising to release an update that would prevent the breach from happening again. Many in the media urged Spiegel to apologize, with one writer at Fortune suggesting that either the CEO should be fired, or the person advising him should be.