The access to the data was soon removed by the company after the contact. The report added that the researchers had alerted federal law-enforcement officials and MediaLab about the exposure.

This means that with some additional information, it would likely be possible to de-anonymise this information. The report also observed that in many cases, information devoted to sexual confessions and orientation were also available. However, the unprotected data reportedly showed information including age, location, ethnicity, residence, in-app nickname, and membership in any of the app's groups. The database did not include real names, as Whisper only allows users to share 'secret' content anonymously. The Washington Post also assessed the data, which showed the results of 1.3 million users who had listed their age as 15.

MediaLab, the parent company of Whisper meanwhile, 'strongly disputed these claims.'Īccording to the report by Washington Post, this data was discovered by independent cyber-security researchers Matthew Porter and Dan Ehrlich who revealed that they were able to access data of nearly 900 million users through a non-password-protected database open to the public Web. However, information such as age, location, and even the content of these posts was publicly available and were at the risk of being breached by potential hackers. Using Whisper, posts such as video and photo messages could be shared anonymously. The secret-sharing app was launched in 2012, and the majority of its users were below the age of 18. Whisper, an anonymous secret-sharing mobile app has been allegedly exposing private user data through a public online database, a report published on Thursday claimed.

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