Although social media app Whisper promotes itself to be the “safest place in the Internet,” it obviously wasn’t very safe when the app allegedly leaked rumors that actress Gwyneth Paltrow was seeing someone else while still married to Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin; the two had eventually divorced. It’s not safe either when users, all under the cloak of anonymity share secrets about average Joes, as opposed to Hollywood celebrities or rock stars. And as the expression goes, “it” hit the fan for Whisper when The Guardian published a revealing special report, citing company sources and claiming that the app tracks its users’ locations regardless if they’re opted out of geolocation. Shots have been fired, and Whisper’s top brass is now volleying back with some strong, strong words.
Over several tweets posted earlier today, Whisper editor-in-chief Neetzan Zimmerman called The Guardian’s tell-all exclusive a “lousy” piece, and that the publication will “regret” having posted the report. He had promised a full response to the allegations “shortly” when responding to another Twitter user, calling the report a “pack of vicious lies.” He had informed yet another user that The Guardian’s report is “100 percent false,” definitely fuming over what had recently transpired.
Though it’s easy to single out Whisper as a deleterious app that ruins marriages, friendships, and the like by means of “anonymous” secret-sharing, it’s also easy to see why Zimmerman was so angry following the expose. The Guardian also discovered that Whisper’s terms and conditions “prompted it on occasions to provide information to both the FBI and MI5,” with these instances also including death threats made against certain users. But the most telling revelation was how Whisper changed its terms of service to “explicitly permit the company to establish the broad location” of individuals who opted out of geolocation, right after The Guardian pressed Whisper about the issue.
The plot is thickening, and we will be waiting to see how Zimmerman and/or other Whisper officials react in full to The Guardian‘s bombshell.
Shizuppy says
This company is now tainted. People don’t want to be reminded that they, in fact, have no anonymity online. However, they were deluding themselves to think that they did in the first place.
ZillaMod says
Don’t hate Whisper for trying to develop for privacy and anonymity. They have had a good product with Silicon Valley’s flawed economic model; which really hates privacy and loves data brokerage with the DoD. Look at the giants — for however long they have been tolerated by all of us, until fairly recently. Whisper needs to fire one of their C-levels and get someone in there who wants their commercial model to reflect more of the zero knowledge stuff. I think it’s time to change the compulsory element and easy money from the DoD sugar daddies in business politics. If Apple and Microsoft are still in business for all their serial indiscretions against consumer privacy, Whisper has room to get it right. If they clean it up they will live. This is survivable. We need more anonymizing stuff in the marketplace.