Profoundly: Anonymous Chats
Anonymous message app invasive, profoundly broken.
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Profoundly: Anonymous Chats
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Profoundly: Anonymous Chats is a social networking app that connects to Facebook and accesses users' profile picture, name, location, and age range. In contradiction to the app store's 17+ rating, the app's terms of use indicate 13 as the minimum user age, but it's not meant for younger teens. Terms also state that users can opt out of receiving email notifications and anonymous questions and can hide responses to anonymous questions within the app's settings, but none of this functionality actually appears within the app. The app's privacy policy indicates that upon canceling your account, the developer keeps your information for up to nine months. Read the developer's privacy policy for details on how your (or your kids') information is collected, used, and shared and any choices you may have in the matter, and note that privacy policies and terms of service frequently change
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What’s It About?
PROFOUNDLY: ANONYMOUS CHATS is another social networking app that lets users send and receive anonymous text messages, this time with Facebook friends (there are other, similar apps that work with Snapchat and Instagram). Users register by connecting the app to their Facebook accounts, giving it access to their names, profile pics, locations, and age (access to their Facebook friends list is optional). Once registered, users can use the app to post anonymous stories to Facebook which friends can respond to anonymously or otherwise.
Is It Any Good?
This invasive, mostly non-functional app insists you connect it to your Facebook account, demands all kinds of personal information, then fails to perform as advertised. It's just another example of a poor app concept, poorly executed.
The first defect in Profoundly: Anonymous Chats is its dependence on Facebook which seemingly undermines the idea of anonymity from the get-go. If it's based on your Facebook profile, how's it anonymous? And is the idea to flood the feeds of your hapless, unsuspecting friends with anonymous posts? The first is just baffling—the second sounds like a way to harass your nearest and dearest. We can't know for sure though, since Profoundly: Anonymous Chats is basically non-functional. The Search function returns either nothing or an error (“Error friend not found"), and no matter how many Stories you create, the interface congratulates you on making your “first story.” There's no way to see your stories, and friends who see them on Facebook see an ad for Profoundly rather than content you created. Worse, the Settings menu contains nothing useful: no parental controls, no way to opt out of notifications or anonymous questions, no way to hide responses to anonymous questions. Worst of all, if you delete your account, the app's development company keeps your information for up to nine months. The current trend of anonymous feedback apps is insidious at best, and Profoundly: Anonymous Chats, with its combination of potentially harmful concept and broken features, is one of the worst you'll find in the app store.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the wisdom of giving/receiving anonymous feedback in apps like Profoundly: Anonymous Chats. When can it be helpful? When can it hurt? Why might it seem appealing? Are there other ways to find out what your friends want to tell you?
Discuss the risks of sharing your Facebook or Instagram profile with random apps. Do you read these app's privacy policies first to see how they use your information?
Think about how apps use your kids' friends' personal info. Do your (or your kids') friends enjoy when you let random apps contact them?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: May 2, 2019
- Category: Social Networking
- Publisher: NearGroup Inc.
- Version: 2.5
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 9.0 or later; Android 5.0 and up
- Last updated: May 31, 2019
Our Editors Recommend
-
GeckoLife
Safer social media option for family sharing.
-
Trill Project
Thoughtful, anonymous network offers online support.
For kids who love social networking
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