For example, Whisper admitted that it tracks its users and might even consider using that information for targeted advertising. Some may just have an email address, while others might also use a phone’s location services to find nearby contacts. Willful disclosure – Most, if not all of the companies that offer anonymous chat services, have access to and keep user data. As Secret shares posts to users’ friends by accessing their Contacts list, an identity can ultimately be unveiled when that user posts to a group of “fake” friends, thinking they’re sharing anonymously but the hacker will know who is posting.Ģ.
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They realized that they could find the identity of a Secret user by creating dummy accounts, each containing a contact list with one real user. Good old-fashioned detective work – Although the “white hat hackers” who discovered this method might call it a hack, it is more of a clever workaround. Can a cloud of secrecy actually keep your identity safe? These four ways of uncovering user identities suggest the answer is no.ġ. Social media in particular is, by its nature, meant to be open and social. Some might say anonymity on the Internet is an oxymoron. For most people, however, it is simply a convenient form of anonymous gossip or digital group therapy. One anonymous chat bullying session led to a teen suicide. Some have even used them to issue threats of violence against others. As a result, these apps have also become vehicles for trolls and cyberbullies to do their dirty work without being identified. Ideally, you can share all kinds of dark secrets about yourself or others without anyone knowing it was you who posted the information. Others are completely anonymous and random, requiring no personal information from you (not even your email address), and connecting you with whomever happens to appear. It is somewhat like sitting blindfolded in a room filled with your friends and talking with them with your voices disguised.
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Many connect you to your social media and email contacts but strip away any personal data. Some of the popular ones include: Whisper, Secret, Cloaq LLC, Yik Yak, Inc., Backchat and Burn Note, Inc. Would-be confessors can choose from a number of anonymous apps, each with their own slightly different feature sets and methods of anonymity. Unfortunately, these apps might not be completely anonymous, and people who use them may risk having their identities exposed. Millions are turning to anonymous chat apps to confess all sorts of information in a very public yet purportedly secret way. Would you like to vent about your annoying coworkers without anyone finding out who you are? Do you have a marital indiscretion you want to confess but cannot risk your spouse finding out? Apparently, many people do, with secret-sharing apps like WhisperText, LLC (Whisper) reporting close to three billion monthly page views just two years after launch, and Open Garden’s FireChat mobile app signing up two new users per second in only its second week of public availability. Anonymous chat apps may not be as protective of users’ identities as we’d like to think.