back to article Whisper tracks its users. So we tracked down its LA office. This is what happened next

We were surprised as anyone when The Guardian revealed that, far from being “the safest place on the internet”, the anonymous messaging app Whisper was tracking the location of its users – even when they specifically denied the app access to their location. Worse, if someone's posts were deemed newsworthy, according to The …

  1. heyrick Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    That's how to do it

    Maybe round up a couple of friends to be outside their door on shifts. Then they'll never be able to come out.

    1. solo

      Re: That's how to do it

      Or we can track them to their house, so that we know that they are worthy. Or, we can call on their personal mobile phones (can Linked-In tell?). Too scary?

      1. swschrad

        sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

        perhaps just leave notes on their home TVs... "Hi, Whisperer. Don't try to patent snooping without disclosure."

    2. Bleu

      Re: That's how to do it

      As I suggest in my post that is currently in the queue, maybe they are usually not there to come out.

    3. Bitbeisser
      Devil

      Re: That's how to do it

      >Maybe round up a couple of friends to be outside their door on shifts. Then they'll never be able to >come out.

      I am in. I live in LA and have a couple of clients within 10mins from that place. Anyone started a shift schedule already?

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

    So how do they leave the building?

    Do they have an underground express to some NSA overnight stay facility?

    It would be rather cool if you waited till evening for anyone to come out. Nothing. Then at 22:00, Smoking Man exits, gets into a car and drives off...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Meanwhile inside the office...

    The execs are all gathered around a window, asking "do you think it will just go away, or do we have to shoot it with this totally legal assault rifle? Turn off it's posting privileges again, see if it leaves."

    1. Rick Giles
      WTF?

      Re: Meanwhile inside the office...

      What is an "assault" rifle? Is that the same as an assault hammer? Assault speargun? Assault 2x4?

  4. as2003

    Great craic!

  5. HCV
    Facepalm

    Hilarious

    That's some serious industrial-strength messed-up, there.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    It'll be interesting...

    ...to see where the money to run the operation comes from.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It'll be interesting...

      Probably comes from the CIA or NSA or both.

      1. caffeine addict

        Re: It'll be interesting...

        From their current love affair, I'd assumed they were owned by Buzzfeed...

  7. PleebSmash
    Happy

    the off-ice

    Maybe it was an office for appearances only, like those empty patent troll offices down in Texas.

  8. William Donelson

    A very very good lesson in how to ruin your investors' investments.

  9. Andrew Jones 2

    So a privacy storm is going on - and they think the best way to handle that (knowing it is being very publicly reported too) is to stick their fingers in their ears and go "LA LA LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU, LA LA LA LA LA"

    Even Apple realises it has to make an attempt to quell people's fears - eventually.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      Yes - Apple has totally responded to bendgate and selfie-gate. They blamed them on users, of course.

  10. P. Lee

    Phone Apps

    Treat every interaction with all apps on your phone as if you were interacting face-to-face with stranger.

    Then dig in the drawer and pull out your Nokia 6310i... The last phone that was actually yours.

    1. ashdav

      Re: Phone Apps

      Aah the old Nokia 6310i.

      I've got 2 of those and they're both goosed because the battery failed.

      (the small backup one that you can't get that's on the PCB not the main battery)

      1. What? Me worry?

        Re: Phone Apps

        I've had to replace the LCD screen on one 6310i after the phone fell out of my pocket while I was cycling. LCD screen shattered, but rest of the mob was fine. :/ I used this info at http://www.formymobile.co.uk/6310disassembly.php#.VEYTL_mSzGA and judging from the screen shots, it appears you can replace the battery too. (It was a few years ago I repaired mine, so I don't remember exactly what it looks like inside, thus the internet memory.)

        1. Obitim
          Trollface

          Re: Phone Apps

          It may have been a doddle to replace the screen, but what about the damage to the road??

    2. IDoNotThinkSo

      Re: Phone Apps

      It is still mine and you can prise it out of etc etc etc...

      1. frank ly

        Re: Phone Apps

        I have two 6310i phones and they still work fine. I have one on PAYG in the glove compartment of my car for use in emergencies, the main battery lasts for months if it's turned off. I'd have thought that the PCB battery was just to save your settings and content so you could still use it as long as you kept the main battery topped up and the phone turned on? If you did that, you'd need to charge it every week or so, depending on use?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    apparently cloudflare thinks zdziarski.com is undergoing a DDoS

    at 8:15pmEDT...

    Apparently the whole world is typing in that URL you superimposed over the bikini pic.

    Uh, no comment.

    1. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: apparently cloudflare thinks zdziarski.com is undergoing a DDoS

      Huh? Was there a URL superimposed over the bikini pic? I didn't notice.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: apparently cloudflare thinks zdziarski.com is undergoing a DDoS

        FAP before PRIVACY!

  12. Mark 85

    App to the Trash... Company to follow....

    This whole episode says more about Whisper than all the PR releases in the world. Yep... they are honest and open.. uh-huh... and if anyone believes that, I have a slightly used bridge for sale.

  13. razorfishsl

    Might be a CIA front….

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: razorfishsl

      "Might be a CIA front…." There really are none so blind as those that do not want to see! Seriously, it seems obvious that the whole caper is a very amateur con job being run to exploit the paranoid, and the reflexive response of the paranoid is to blame the CIA?!?!?

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: razorfishsl

        it seems obvious that the whole caper is a very amateur con job being run to exploit the paranoid

        Yet another one who falls for CIA decoys hook, line and sinker.

        1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: Destroyed all Braincell's Re: razorfishsl

          "....Yet another one who falls for CIA decoys hook, line and sinker." My point proven, right on cue.

      2. Graham Marsden
        Facepalm

        Re: razorfishsl

        > the reflexive response of the paranoid is to blame the CIA?!?!?

        No, the reflexive response of Matt is to miss the irony...

        1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
          FAIL

          RE: Marsbarbrain Re: razorfishsl

          ".....No, the reflexive response of Matt is to miss the irony..." Wow, Marsbarbrain's backpedalling has become so reflexive he now automatically does it even for others! Or maybe he just missed the bit where people have been mocking the tinfoil-attired for months over their conspiracy theories claiming this or that social media tool/site "is a CIA front!"

      3. This post has been deleted by its author

      4. Bleu

        Re: razorfishsl

        Actually, Matt, it does seem to be a con job, just trying to traffic information wherever they can, including DoD, the Guardian, and Buzzfeed, one wonders who else they might be 'sharing' with?

        ... and CIA connection is a pretty stupid, though mildly amusing, suggestion.

        However, I would not be surprised if they had an Israeli connection, including to secret services, though if they do, we'll never hear about that.

        Apologies for my earlier hasty comment.

    2. Ralph B

      Might be a CIA front….

      You mean, just like Facebook ... ?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That Phorm moment

    I imagine they're experiencing something of a Phorm moment; you let the the heady glow of apparent success go to your head and boldly flash a bit more than you know is discreet to impress a potential suitor. You dismiss the NDA because its all going so swimmingly and you don't want to upset the applecart and bang - you wake up with a serious hangover and discover that not only does the rest of the world not drink the same from the Kool Aid, but they're far less stupid than you could have possibly imagined from the safety of your insular environment.

    That they bother persevering with the farce is just embarassing.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Honestly confused

    I'd like to ask a question: why is Whisper being singled out for these clauses in their terms of service? Google tracks you even closer when using Maps, for example - exact location down to a few meters, attached to your IP and IMEI. Never you mind what the other "social networking" apps get from you, from Faceplant I mean Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to Foursquare, and beyond.

    I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but Whisper is no more guilty than the rest of the social networking, sell-your-soul-for-a-profit-so-we-can-get-our-IPO scum, so when does the entire social networking app industry get called out for flagrantly ignoring and sharing your privacy for the sake of profit?

    Modern society reminds me of Rise of the Cybermen: too stupid to question, too easy to cajole.

    1. Old Handle
      Facepalm

      Re: Honestly confused

      Because Whisper pushes itself as a privacy app. Duh.

      You won't hear people complaining that Whisper's search function is crappy (Is it? Does it even have one? I have no idea. It's just an example.) But if Google suddenly stopped being able to find relevant content it would be a pretty big deal.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Honestly confused

      "...too stupid to question..."

      No. It was questioned, by the Guardian, and found sorely wanting. That's the way it works; we can't know it all, so we hope to rely on others in whom we have some trust to dig up the dirt on things beyond our own expertise, and in turn some of us do that for others where we are the experts.

      Or do you imagine that back in the good old days, when the Wright brothers achieved powered flight, that everyone else was an expert on aerodynamics with an informed critique at the ready?

      On "too easy to cajole" though, I wouldn't entirely disagree, although in this case the cajoling was done before the Guardians story.

      1. DropBear

        Re: Honestly confused

        Google tracks you even closer when using Maps, for example

        What makes you think I ever allowed any Google service, maps included, access to location, with any degree of accuracy? You're not supposed to need that if you're only looking at the map, but I'm using a different - get this, an offline one - map app anyway that has the side advantage of actually being freely correctable if it happens to be wrong... Now, Google may or may not go behind my back and track me without consent anyway, but I'm certainly not going to make it easy for them.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Honestly confused

          > I'm using a different - get this, an offline one - map app anyway that has the side advantage of actually being freely correctable if it happens to be wrong

          On a phone? Would that happen to be OsmAnd then? Best portable device mapping application I have ever seen, including SatNavs and the like. And it can download and use OSM data offline--a plugin even allows you to do some basic editing on OSM directly from your phone.

          Best thing is that it's FOSS and available from F-Droid and alternative "markets", which is useful for those like me, who do not have nor want a Goorgle account.

    3. Irongut

      Re: Honestly confused

      Ah AC you are the perfect citizen.

      Too stupid to understand how they are shafting you even when it is spelled out.

      Too gulliable to question your masters.

    4. Bleu

      Re: Honestly confused

      I will give you a posivote, but the difference is simple, Google managers and staff are massive hypocrites, but they don't claim 'We are leaving you completely anonymous' while collecting and trying to sell data on users.

      You can always switch geolocation, maps, and all of those things off.

      I do, I much prefer a physical or graphical map.

      Not that I support the Google approach, I suspect that I have an identity on Google+, don't like that, but I don't care too much that they serve me ads.

      I know that I have a facebook identity thanks to a stupid arsehole who kept sending invitations, I didn't block his mail straight away, I know that facebook retains such data.

      Finally blocked the idiot.

      You are correct, but wrong about Whisper, their selling point was anonymity, but their valuation was based on a business plan involving geolocation data combined with comments made on their site, and the profit from selling that information.

      Battery about to stop.

    5. Bleu

      Re: Honestly confused

      By the way, I get few relevant Google ads because I never use their search engine.

      I think that is a good idea.

  16. thomas k.

    one advantage of having no friends

    Well, that's one advantage of having no friends - never having to deal with dodgy apps like this.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: one advantage of having no friends

      This app was meant for people who were not wanting his friends to included in their chit-chat (it is anonymous, remember?)

    2. Bleu

      Re: one advantage of having no friends

      You are making the category error of confusing on-line acquaintances who happen to 'like' your posts once in a while or who you can drag into supporting you, with IRL people who are friends.

      There are points of crossover, but they tend to be very shallow and short-lived connections.

      Not only from my experience, from listening to and observing 'net connections, all very shallow, even in, for example, a case of suicide because of cancer.

      Get the day or two of occasional pious statements, clear that nobody much gave a damn. People who knew the person IRL or through e-mail exchanges, did give a damn, of course, the latter is the lesser, but sure beats the heartless morons making pious noises for popularity in their electronic 'spaces'.

      There's an experimental project for me, get back in touch with a former friend I met IRL, just as the then-friend's social network obsession was developing, so anyone not on Facebook was rapidly forgotten.

      I will try it by the end of this year.

      I guess that, if one hates Facebook for example, people who have been gathered by chat on the site (the former friend now bases his social life on that) aren't much going to like the lone skeptic.

      Which is just so absurd, why should that stupid site be essential?

      Any can use e-mail or the telephone, the post.

  17. integr8d

    Hit me up anytime you want lunch. Totally regret not swinging by the Reg or Inq while in London for 5 mos.

    #NotAffiliateWithWhisper

  18. Barbarian At the Gates

    Honestly

    I'll admit it, if El Reg showed up outside my door, I'd probably cower in fear as well.

    Beware the black vultures circling overhead!

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Honestly

      If they showed up outside my door, I'd be delighted that they thought I was that interesting.

  19. Winkypop Silver badge
    Devil

    Did their office door have...

    ... a "private" sign on it?

    Just wondering.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I like this

    Fantastic bit of serious reporting presented in a register-worthy tongue-in-cheek manner. Good stuff.

  21. khisanth

    Is it possible that the reporter is at the wrong address?

    1. TeraTelnet
      Coat

      Well, he's probably within 500 metres of it...

    2. MrWibble
      Joke

      Depends - did he use Google or Apple Maps to navigate there?

      1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

        Or *spit* Bing.

        1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

          Dear Mr(s) downvoter,

          I've not used it for some time so they might just possibly have got their act together (yea right) but Bing is the only thing that still showed a road many months after it had collapsed into the sea. It also showed a 'road' in Wales that I wouldn't attempt in anything less than a tank.

          It showed a woodland footpath that didn't exist, and as far as I know, never has existed, and claimed a route for the North Downs Way that would lead you straight to the most dangerous part of the A249.

          1. Terry 6 Silver badge

            @will godfrey

            So what, I've equally found odd errors in Garmin's and TomTom maps -like not knowing that there are two adjacent roundabouts in a junction and telling me to turn left at "the roundabout" when I need to turn left at the second one. Or not knowing that a (different) roundabout has a new exit, before the one it was indicating.

            I use each of them. So far I haven't personally had any problems with Bing and its instructions have been really clear and unambiguous.

            And we all know what happened when the fruit based mapping was introduced.

            But there are commentards who have hating Microsoft as a religion.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Earlier warning from a Forbes journalist

    In a way, this like an anonymous facebook which lowers people's built-in privacy barriers even further. I am not saying that some FB users haven't already scraped the bottom.

    Unfortunately, all the rules and caveats of online security still apply with this app, and even Whisper admits this.

    The problem is that sahred data can be too easily misused on a mega scale. Even News of the World reporters had to work a bit to crack into someone's old-tech voice messages.

    Now imagine what would happen if someone stole all of the Whisper posting data, UUID and location data (yes they hold onto it) and could later link it to individual users? That sort of scenario that would give any gossip sheet/rag a seriously raging hard-on, not to mention its potential use for blackmail etc.

    I'm not a celebrity but please get me outta here......fast

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/01/24/3-reasons-to-be-wary-of-secret-sharing-app-whispers-claim-to-anonymity/

    Definitely anonymous, assuming it is still possible to be so,

    1. Bleu

      Re: Earlier warning from a Forbes journalist

      Why not use your normal Reg nickname? I really cannot understand why people use 'post as AC' when it is not offensive or doesn't have to do with the place of work.

      After all, you do have to log in to post as AC.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Earlier warning from a Forbes journalist

        > I really cannot understand why people use 'post as AC' when it is not offensive or doesn't have to do with the place of work.

        I can't speak for the other person, but in my case every comment that I have ever posted to El Reg has been as AC, for a number of reasons:

        1. I prefer my comments to be evaluated for their own merit, rather than because it was so-and-so who said it.

        2. I like the idea of this "anybody" who speaks with a thousand voices and often contradicts himself. It is deeply stimulating from a philosophical point of view.

        3. It helps those people who may occasionally wish to post something sensitive, in that they can hide in the noise somewhat. If only a few people posted AC, their writing style and idiolect would give them away immediately even to an occasional reader. There is safety in numbers.

        4. It allows me to contribute what I hope are helpful facts and insights without exposing myself too much. Even if you were to post under a pseudonymous, over time people can learn a surprising amount of detail about you even without access to backend data (IP address, email, etc.)

        5. It protects my customers. Following on from the previous point, security breaches often come from someone collecting little tidbits of information and then joining the dots. By not providing that "anchor" that is your user handle, you make that job a little bit harder.

        Conversely and out of interest, what would the advantages be of posting under a regular handle, or using one's own name for that matter? Thanks. :)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Earlier warning from a Forbes journalist

          6. It allows me to update things without actually being me, thus democratizing the process of maintaining journalistic integrity.

  23. Bleu

    If only they were paying attention ...

    they'd have known the last Reg article was pretty scathing about the Guardian's. Looking it up, I thought they were rather interesting, sure teaching Whisper the potential value of an NDA, but glad they hadn't worked it out by the time the Guardian turned up!

    For commentards who are not paying attention, Buzzfeed has also cut its 'journalistic' connection with Whisper.

    Nice tale Kieran, even though nothing much happens.

    Maybe the building is just a glorified P.O. box, with a few decrepit servers and dust-covered desks, all connected by cobwebs.

  24. NogginTheNog
    Meh

    Whisper?

    Never heard of it.

    *Sigh* another Internet "must have" passes me by - like Twitter, Pinterest, WhatsApp, and fuck knows - or cares - what else...

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Whisper?

      Remember PointCast? MySpacce?

      Yeah. I'm with you. Most of them are just pump and dump vehicles for the well connected.

  25. ukgnome

    That's by kind of journalism

    Bravo, simply bravo - although lets be honest having your HQ in venice is possibly why they never opened the door. I've been there, it's not the nicest. In fact I would go as far to say it's scummy.

    If I had of known at the time about whisper and the way it uses data then I would of joined the journo. It would of made my time on the coast more appealing.

  26. Stevie

    Bah!

    I'm being thick.

    What exactly is it about this "app" that prevents one from removing it from one's device and never using it again?

    To judge by the article the thing embeds itself into one's body and begins transmitting pernicious position parameters to paparazzi.

  27. victoryviatruth

    If you had a tent and the will they would still be locked in there. Nice bust!

  28. opaque

    Probably one of several hundred people that have done the same thing recently.

  29. ecofeco Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    BRAVO!!!

    Command performance right there!

    STANDING OVATION!

    Oh, and fuck them.

  30. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Congratulations, you are now a market segment!

    And that's the ironic crux of this issue - the tinfoil-attired have created such a storm of hot air that they have succeeded in growing their group size to the point where they are now actively being targeted by people selling products, services and conjobs tailored to them as a market segment. It's so amusing that their very paranoia about being 'exploited' and 'having their privacy invaded' is driving them into the arms of exploitative companies that are selling such services and products that they claim will 'protect' the paranoid. How many anti-capitalists blindly forked out cash for these proprietary, capitalist-driven services? It's all too funny for words!

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