Will the Federal Trade Commission soon investigate the app Whisper for false and misleading privacy promises? The Guardian recently reported some very troubling allegations about Whisper that if true lead me to believe that the app may soon be contacted by the Federal Trade Commission to fully explain the matter.
According to The Guardian, Whisper "is tracking the location of its users, including some who have specifically asked not to be followed." This may be a violation of Article 5 of the FTC Act regarding unfair and deceptive trade practices. Earlier this year, the FTC alleged that Snapchat, "deceived consumers over the amount of personal data it collected and the security measures taken to protect that data from misuse and unauthorized disclosure....According to the FTC’s complaint, Snapchat made multiple misrepresentations to consumers about its product that stood in stark contrast to how the app actually worked."
Whisper's actions after learning that The Guardian was about to publish its story are very disturbing. For example, according to The Guardian, after learning about the upcoming story Whisper rewrote its terms of service to "explicitly permit the company to establish the broad location of people who have disabled the app’s geo-location feature." In addition, The Guardian reported that Whisper recently changed its privacy policy from it “is committed to protecting your privacy and the security of personally identifying information” to “our goal is to provide you with a tool that allows you to express yourself while remaining anonymous to the community."
Whisper's terms of service and privacy policy govern its relationship with its users. Whisper's response to The Guardian's allegations do not appear to address why its terms of service and privacy policy were changed. Are these changes an acknowledgement that Whisper has been making unfair and deceptive privacy promises about its app?
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