Stung by The Guardian’s allegations, Whisper issues yet another statement about their service

From Whisper’s CEO Michael Heyward on Medium: What Whisper Is All About:

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We allow users to share their GPS location because it enhances their experience by surfacing regional issues of interest, and makes them feel connected to those near them. We have been allowing users to search Whispers by location since December 2013. In May we enhanced this feature to allow users to search for Whispers on a map (this is the same mapping tool that Whisper uses internally).

We do not actively track users. We absolutely review users’ posts for trust and safety reasons whether they shared their GPS location or not. For example, if we believe a user may pose a threat to their community, we will take appropriate action. Because we don’t have any personally identifiable information, viewing their past activity (which they have shared publicly) helps us assess if any action should be taken. To cite another example, if a user claims to be a health care professional concerned about Ebola, we may review their recent posts to help assess the authenticity of the Whisper before featuring it.

We also utilize anonymous Whisper data to glean important insights about our world. For example, we’re proudly working with organizations to lower suicide rates, including the Department of Defense’s Suicide Prevention Office. To date we have also referred more than 40,000 people to the National Suicide Prevention hotline and we have a nonprofit arm dedicated to helping millions more. We can’t wait to establish more of these relationships and effect real change.