They claim they vet any third party service they use to make sure the service has appropriate privacy and security protocols in place, but there’s no way for us to verify that since they don’t tell us who the third parties are. That’s a bad security practice.Īlso, they don’t disclose which third parties they share your data with. They’re not very security-focused either: they use SMS-only verification, which means you don’t have a password, you sign in with your phone and then get a text authentication code. While they’ve since stopped this practice, that’s not a sign of a management team that cares about privacy. After raising a round of funding in 2016, they started accessing their user’s contacts, analyzing which of the user’s contacts would be most likely to use Marco Polo, and then sending that contact a text message from the user’s phone. Joya Communications, founded by a husband and wife duo launched Marco Polo in 2014. So who is actually getting access to my data? So be warned that they will ask you for your contacts - and if you give them access, they take your contacts and store them on their own servers. But, if their past is any indication, they really want your contacts. There’s nothing too unusual about they way they collect data - no indication that they’re analyzing your videos to collect personal information via facial recognition or anything like that.
Some of the technical data (e.g., IP address, mobile carrier), they scrape off of your phone. Most of the data they get, you give directly to them. “ Information about your use of and actions on the app” (we have no idea what this phrase from their privacy policy means - could be harmless legalese meant to be a catchall, or could be intentionally vague to cover something up) Pages you viewed, access times, and how long you spent on a page In addition to other data identifying your or your device (including wireless carrier), they collect: You can provide extra info if you want, like birth date and a photo, but be aware that they will share that info with your friends in the app. They’ll also ask for access to your contacts, but you don’t have to give up access if you don’t want. To sign up, you have to give them a phone number and email address, which they will verify. We’d be wary about trusting them with your data.
They claim that they don’t sell your data - but we can’t figure out how else they’d make money.
#Marcopolo me verification#
And, they rely on SMS verification only (no password required), which is a suboptimal security practice. In the past, they sent text message invitations from your phone to your top contacts without explicit permission. TL DR: For Marco Polo, privacy isn’t a priority. Is there any other info we should include in this one-pager? Is there anyone that finds what we put together helpful? Are there any other apps that we should try to do this for to help people think more about their online privacy? We're watering down a lot of the suggestions because we're trying to engage an audience that is less privacy-focused. We put together the below one-pager on an app called Marco Polo, which is a "video walkie talkie" app. So we're trying a new approach and going after the apps that they use less frequently, but are still privacy risks. Generally any conversation that ends with "and that's why you should delete FB / Google" is lost on them.
#Marcopolo me free#
All of these people we're trying to convince are smart and care somewhat about privacy, but they value social media and other free apps a lot too. A few of my classmates and I have been trying to convince our friends and families to be more conscious of their privacy online.
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