Anonymised social media channel Whisper concedes it is not ‘infallible’
A social media platform which sells itself as facilitating anonymous online discussions has responded to allegations in the Guardian that it tracked its users by admitting it is ‘not infallible’.
Whisper chief executive Michael Heyward, whose site processes 2.6m messages a day, made the concession in a weekend blog post following publication of a series of damaging accounts of company practices.
In his message Heyward said: “Above all else, we always strive to do right by our users. We have zero tolerance for any employee who violates that trust.
“While we’re disappointed with the Guardian’s approach, we welcome the discussion. We realise that we’re not infallible, and that reasonable people can disagree about a new and quickly evolving area like online anonymity.”
However in relation to the key question of whether Whisper tracks its users Heyward would only say that the site does not ‘actively’ track people.
The fracas unfolded after several Guardian journalists, invited into Whisper’s offices, observed employees making use of an in-house mapping tool to access approximate GPS data attached to posted messages, for users who’d opted into geolocation services, in a bid to confirm the ‘veracity’ of news stories.
Users who had disabled such services were tracked by their IP data.