What bothers me more is there is no encryption from end-to-end. If i snap someone they're always going to be able to photograph their phone, if nothing else, but Snapchat aren't even trying to build trust wrt snaps in transit. If you look at the crypto they have deployed, it's nothing more obfuscation to prevent reverse-engineering. They treat the whole thing as a joke.

In the end, they have a 15 billion dollar valuation. Until the concept of encryption enters the mass consumer consciousness or a horrifically damaging event occurs, they don't need to improve their encryption model to accomplish their company agenda.

Wait. Hasn't the concept of encryption entered mass consumer consciousness (my grandparents have asked me about it) and have not horrifically damaging events occurred?

Consumers know what encryption is but they don't demand it in their products and it does not drive their decision making on consumption preferences.

Horrifically damaging events have occurred in isolation. The celebrity photo leaks a little while back is a good example. The blame for those leaks wasn't pushed onto Apple and the celebrities security practices, it was placed on the individuals who obtained the pictures. We need more widespread damage with a clear link to lack of encryption. The target breach last year(?) is a good example of a similar event for data security and has led to some political talk about laws with stricter requirements.