The Backchat App Uses Pranks and Clues to Teach the Value of Anonymity

Backchat is a newly-launched anonymous messaging app, designed by 14-year-old Daniel Singer and his father, Uri. Right now its user base sits at about 125,000, most of whom are teens. Does the teenage appmaker's arrival signal a new generation firmly aware of surveillance and privacy issues? Well, let's see how its privacy controls stack up.

Originally launched on iOS, but now available on Android, Bachchat works by masking the identify of the sender and recipient. "Have fun, memorable, and quirky conversations with friends, while your anonymity adds a whole new level of excitement, allowing you to get closer to your friends, and maybe, just maybe, play a prank or two," reads the Backchat website.

Reports indicate that teen mobile and internet users are migrating away from social media like Facebook to ephemeral messaging platforms such as Snapchat, where their communications self-destruct. The reasons are likely many: avoiding the prying eyes of parents (and teachers); using the latest and coolest app; boredom with traditional social media; or the desire to sext in peace. It might seem unlikely that teens are paying much attention to electronic privacy, but perhaps the anti-surveillance sentiment is permeating youth culture.

It's worth emphasizing that Backchat isn't an ephemeral messaging platform. So, its users' messages don't self-destruct like Snapchat. "We think ephemerality and anonymity are different," said Singer in a Los Angeles Times interview. "I don't think we're banging heads with each other yet." But, it's also not a pure anonymous messaging app like, say, Wickr (which doesn't ask for user data, and erases messages).

And, unlike his Backchat users, Singer's motivation probably isn't about keeping secrets from parents; after all, he works with his father. From all appearances, he wanted to create a cool and fun app for his demographic, and perhaps even older users with a little child left in them (if Backchat's first ad is any indication).

Some observers might suggest that Backchat is traveling in the popular slipstream of ephemeral messaging platforms like Snapchat and Whisper. That Singer and his father are merely exploiting a trend, making something "cool" for a certain demographic, and waiting for the startup build-to-flip cycle to play out.

The more interesting possibility is that Singer already knows the best way to sell a subversive idea: coat it in sugar. "Have fun, memorable, and quirky conversations with friends, while your anonymity adds a whole new level of excitement, allowing you to get closer to your friends, and maybe, just maybe, play a prank or two," read the app's website. "Backchat is a communication tool designed for those of us who can’t wait to find exciting and original ways to chat with our friends and have a good time."

As if that weren't game-like enough, Backchat offers users a "clue system," where recipients cycle through a series of clues to guess the identity of anonymous senders. In that respect, Backchat is almost like a hybrid messaging and game app. For those who might criticize Singer for highlighting Backchat's clue system and prankster potential, keep in mind that any product has to sell. Sure, the app is free, but no one is going to download it if it doesn't differentiate itself from other products.

Backchat's privacy is not without its flaws. Users have to login via their Facebook or Google+ account and contacts are clearly visible, although messages remain anonymous—unless you give clues, as some users apparently do.

On the upside, Backchat is pretty transparent about how its collection of user data, which requires voluntary admission from users. "Backchat respects your privacy," reads the app's privacy policy. "Backchat only collects PII [name, address, email, telephone number, credit or debit card information] through optional, voluntary submissions, such as email, survey information, and online registration forms."

While it may be rash to see Singer as a harbinger of a mass teenage movement toward more user privacy, it's a positive effort. Millennials grew up in a world with personal computers and video games, but had to wait for the internet to mature. We remember the privacy we had in the 80s and most of the 90s. Singer's generation—the second wave of digital natives—has always had the internet. Social media, in one form or another, has from birth been one of the most dominant experiences of their lives, too.

So, we might assume that it would be difficult for teens to have a nuanced understanding of privacy. But, that is to underestimate their intelligence. Instead, perhaps we should see this migration to and—in Singer's case—the designing of ephemeral messaging and anonymity platforms as evidence of a greater awareness of electronic surveillance and data mining than we ever imagined.