Citizen Volunteer 'safety' app accidentally doxxes singer Billie Eilish
The app released the singer's home address after a reported burglary.
Citizen, the provocative crime-reporting app formerly known as Vigilante, is making headlines again for all the wrong reasons. On Thursday night, he doxxed singer Billie Eilish, posting her address to thousands of people after an alleged burglary at her home.
Shortly after the break-in, the app notified users of a burglary in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, including the home address. As reported by Vice, Citizen's post was updated at 9:41 p.m. to indicate that the house belonged to Eilish. According to Citizen statistics, the alert was sent to 178,000 people and seen by nearly 78,000 people. On Friday morning, Citizen updated the description of the incident in the app, replacing the specific address with a nearby cross street.
Although the home addresses of celebrities are often publicly available (usually on seedy websites specializing in such invasive nonsense), a popular app featuring the home address of one of pop music's biggest stars to thousands of users is... new. Unfortunately, this is only Citizen's latest potentially destructive move.
When Citizen launched as Vigilante in 2016, Apple quickly pulled the title from the App Store due to concerns about its encouraging users to immerse themselves in dangerous situations. So it was renamed Citizen with a new focus on security, and Apple reopened. The app began advising users to avoid ongoing incidents while providing tools to help those who found themselves in a dangerous situation. While that sounds reasonable, at least one episode reveals an overzealous company that prioritizes attention and profit over social responsibility.
Citizen
In May 2021, CEO Andrew Frame ordered the launch of a live stream, encouraging app users to hunt down a suspected arsonist (based on a tip from a sergeant from the LAPD and emails from residents interviewed by the police). He offered a $10,000 bounty to find the suspect, which rose to $30,000 later that evening. As the hunt continued, the CEO reportedly grew more frantic, with one of his internal Slack conversations encouraging the team to "catch this guy before midnight" in an ecstatic message in all caps.
A staff member was ignored in a Slack chat when he alerted the team to a violation of the app's terms of service, which prohibit "posting specific information that could identify parties involved in an incident". When police announced that night that they had made an arrest, the team celebrated, believing their feverish hunt for notability had led to the capture. The only problem? Citizen had the wrong guy. In Frame's apparent eagerness to legitimize his app's goal with a high-profile citizen's arrest, he placed a public bounty on a wrongfully accused suspect.
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The app released the singer's home address after a reported burglary.
Citizen, the provocative crime-reporting app formerly known as Vigilante, is making headlines again for all the wrong reasons. On Thursday night, he doxxed singer Billie Eilish, posting her address to thousands of people after an alleged burglary at her home.
Shortly after the break-in, the app notified users of a burglary in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, including the home address. As reported by Vice, Citizen's post was updated at 9:41 p.m. to indicate that the house belonged to Eilish. According to Citizen statistics, the alert was sent to 178,000 people and seen by nearly 78,000 people. On Friday morning, Citizen updated the description of the incident in the app, replacing the specific address with a nearby cross street.
Although the home addresses of celebrities are often publicly available (usually on seedy websites specializing in such invasive nonsense), a popular app featuring the home address of one of pop music's biggest stars to thousands of users is... new. Unfortunately, this is only Citizen's latest potentially destructive move.
When Citizen launched as Vigilante in 2016, Apple quickly pulled the title from the App Store due to concerns about its encouraging users to immerse themselves in dangerous situations. So it was renamed Citizen with a new focus on security, and Apple reopened. The app began advising users to avoid ongoing incidents while providing tools to help those who found themselves in a dangerous situation. While that sounds reasonable, at least one episode reveals an overzealous company that prioritizes attention and profit over social responsibility.
Citizen
In May 2021, CEO Andrew Frame ordered the launch of a live stream, encouraging app users to hunt down a suspected arsonist (based on a tip from a sergeant from the LAPD and emails from residents interviewed by the police). He offered a $10,000 bounty to find the suspect, which rose to $30,000 later that evening. As the hunt continued, the CEO reportedly grew more frantic, with one of his internal Slack conversations encouraging the team to "catch this guy before midnight" in an ecstatic message in all caps.
A staff member was ignored in a Slack chat when he alerted the team to a violation of the app's terms of service, which prohibit "posting specific information that could identify parties involved in an incident". When police announced that night that they had made an arrest, the team celebrated, believing their feverish hunt for notability had led to the capture. The only problem? Citizen had the wrong guy. In Frame's apparent eagerness to legitimize his app's goal with a high-profile citizen's arrest, he placed a public bounty on a wrongfully accused suspect.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices correct at time of publication.
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