The key thing here is it’s not so much about being anonymous to us. Whisper CEO Michael Heyward is fine with that, Forbes notes. In January, Forbes reported that Whisper does track users in order to ban harassers or bullies on the site, and that the app has enough information on users for law enforcement to be able to figure out who posts what on the app. The company published a complete response to the Guardian’s questions, along with links to other stories that describe some of the company’s policies.

The company says there is nothing in the geolocation data that can put the anonymity of users in jeopardy, and that it does not follow or track users. Neetzan Zimmerman, editor-in-chief at Whisper, said the Guardian story was a “pack of vicious lies” and that the news organization “made a mistake posting that story and they will regret it.” Zimmerman also said that the data Whisper provided to the Department of Defense was only from users who had opted-in to share their location. Whisper does not have any access to any personal information like name or address, rather a unique user identification code is assigned to each user the first time they download and sign up for the application. The information was reportedly gathered while the Guardian was speaking with Whisper about a potential journalistic relationship.įor people who turn off geo-location information, Whisper can use the poster’s IP location to discern approximate location data like a particular city, state, or country. See also: I’ll Tell You A Secret: Anonymous Apps MatterĪdditionally, the report claims Whisper is storing user information and post data indefinitely, even if someone believes they have been deleted, and that the company changed its privacy policy after learning about the Guardian’s exposé. Department of Defense, and monitoring “potentially newsworthy” users like military personnel and people who say they work at companies like Yahoo. The company is also reportedly sharing information posted from military bases with the U.S. What The Guardian FoundĪccording to the newspaper, Whisper monitors the location of some of its users, even those people who have decided to opt-out of the location sharing, and can track and pinpoint specific users with location turned on to within a 500-meter radius. Other people can view and comment on the posts, and sometimes whispers posted on the application are used by news organizations, including the Guardian, in articles. Whisper lets users post anonymous messages, often secret or gossipy in nature, publicly to the application. Whisper has strongly denied many of the Guardian’s claims.

Anonymous messages posted on Whisper, the secret-sharing application, might not be so anonymous after all, according to a report from the Guardian published on Thursday.

How to find someone on whisper app