Cloaq
By Lisa Caplan,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Anonymous posting poses potential danger; tamer than some.
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Cloaq
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What’s It About?
After entering a password and receiving an anonymous username, you can begin posting text and pictures, following other users, and commenting on news items from sources such as Mashable, Gizmodo, and BuzzFeed. You can comment on others' posts and give them an up or down vote. Using the @xyz.com of a person's email address, SparQ groups people into separate, private areas of Cloaq where people from the same organization can post anonymously with each other: They will provide an email address, but it won't be linked to any posts or their main Cloaq feed.
Is It Any Good?
CLOAQ works as advertised: Creating an ID is simple, the instructions are easy to follow, and, once you have a username, Cloaq mimics other social sites enough so kids will instantly know where to find what they're looking for. It's fairly basic, in terms of available features. As a platform it works fine, and similar to Blink! - Secret Messaging and Whisper - Share, Express, Meet, the clear intention is to allow people to say whatever they want. Unlike some other platforms, however, the community culture is largely tame and mostly positive. Regular users report that rather than being a haven for "trolls" and other people who use social media to be disruptive or hurtful, Cloaq members are open and nonthreatening. However, concerns lie in potential abuses, as anonymity often leads to negative behaviors.
One other consideration is that a user doesn't know what data is being collected behind the scenes, and the privacy policy doesn't specify. Certainly user IP addresses are visible to developers and subject to misuse both by the company and hackers.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about safe social-networking practices. What photos are appropriate to share? What information should never be shared with strangers?
Discuss cyberbullying and anonymity. Sometimes feeling hidden and anonymous makes people behave differently than they would face to face. Also, parents should remind kids to report any incident of being cyberbullied to a parent or teacher.
Talk about how important it is not to meet up with strangers even if they seem like they're other kids online. For example, parents should be sure to warn kids not to meet with anyone from a site like Cloaq just because they claim to be the same age or gender. It's important to make sure kids know that the more anonymous the social network, the more dangerous meeting in person can be.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: March 26, 2015
- Category: Social Networking
- Topics: High School
- Publisher: Cloaq LLC
- Version: 2.0
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 7.1 or later
- Last updated: February 11, 2019
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