What else have people been Whispering about this year? Take a look at 10 of the most popular posts from 2015 below to find out. In fact, some people have launched true, IRL relationships after meeting through Whisper. It was the number one most searched and most used word on the app in 2015. While the content of Whispers certainly varies, there is one word that stands out above the rest: Love. Each hour, the app is opened more than one million times, and more than half a billion -yes, billion- “hearts” have been doled out in response to people’s confessions. The platform allows users to share any thoughts or feelings, from serious confessions about what it’s really like to be a teen mom, to humorous ones about the real effort a perfect selfie requires, all while remaining completely anonymous.Īnd when we say it’s popular, we’re not kidding: Whisper has 20 million members in 187 countries around the world, according to co-founder Michael Heyward. It’s those innate and universal human feelings that likely make the app Whisper so wildly popular. But at the same time, when we want or need to get things off our chests - whether happy, sad, or completely absurd - we want to know someone is listening, even if they don't directly respond. Recently we talked about a Samsung data breach triggered by the odd "I" notifications that users received in February.There’s nothing like the cloak of anonymity to bring out our most honest selves. Whisper parent company, MediaLab, VP Lauren Jamar says that the data in the database was information that was part of a "consumer facing feature" of the app and that users could choose to share that data or not.ĭata leaks and security breaches seem to be nonstop. The most disturbing information in the leak was the location coordinates for the last submitted post with some pointing to schools, workplaces, and residential neighborhoods. No real names were included in the leak, but leaked data did include age, ethnicity, gender, hometown, nickname, and memberships in groups within the app. However, the company spokesperson said that the database the researchers found wasn't meant to be directly queried. Some of the data was tied to accounts used by minors.Ī Whisper official said in a statement that much of the data was meant to be public from within the Whisper app. All the records were viewable in a non-password-protected database open to the public Web. The Washington Post says that the data exposure was discovered by independent researchers, which said that it allowed anyone to access all the location data and other information tied to the anonymous whispers that users shared on the app. Posts are represented in a sort-of meme format, in which you compose your Whisper and the app suggests an image to use as the background, though you can choose. When you create an account, the app assigns you a random, customizable username to publish your posts. One recent count found that there were over 1 million users of the app who self-identified as being 15 years old. With no names, locations, ages or any information needed to create an account, there is no user verification. The concern for these intimate details being leaked, according to cybersecurity researchers, is that users of Whisper could have been identified or blackmailed. Whisper is a social media app where users can post, react, and comment anonymously. The Whisper app is heavily marketed to young adults and teens, describing itself as a place for people to share their secrets. For years the app left intimate confessions exposed on the Web that were tied to the posters age, location, and other details.
Ironically, Whisper calls itself the "safest place on the Internet" and claims to have hundreds of millions of users. The leaked messages were publicly viewable until a major news outlet contacted Whisper before running a story on the breach.
The app has been confirmed to have leaked personal information online that was tied to the location of the user. Whisper is an app that was meant to allow users to anonymously share highly intimate details on their sexual preferences and other data without other users knowing who they really were.