Mat Honan on the Whisper/Guardian Fiasco

Mat Honan, writing for BuzzFeed:

In the somewhat confusingly written clarification, Guardian US yesterday stated that it was “happy to clarify” that IP address data is “a very rough and unreliable indicator of location,” that Whisper had drafted changes to its terms of service before Guardian US contacted it, and that it did not share personal information with the Department of Defense.

One of its central claims that it did not walk back, however, was that Whisper was looking at location data of users who had not opted in to having it tracked. Nor did it retract a disputed quote, allegedly made by one of Whisper’s executives, claiming it would track a certain lobbyist for the rest of his life.

The bottom line is that the “clarification” did more to muddy things than it did to make them apparent. Still, for Whisper’s management, apparently this represents “good enough.”

★ Friday, 13 March 2015