'Stolen!' The Privacy Nightmare App That Let Players Own Twitter Profiles Like Trading Cards Shuts Down

Hey, Inc.'s last ditch effort to stay afloat in the business through the viral game, Stolen, which was released in October 2015, has been officially shut down as of Jan. 15 after a barrage of privacy concerns from Twitter users who were unknowingly added in the game. This was stated in an official letter from United States (U.S.) Representative Katherine M. Clark to Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Many people take their privacy seriously, especially when they are in fields in which they are prone to being trolled and abused via social media, but Hey, Inc. did not seem to recognize or even think about the negative implications of the game prior to its release.

The game has been branded as addictive even in its Beta testing phase and its popularity surprised even CEO, Siqi Chen. The company was even hopeful that Stolen! Is the game that will prevent Hey, Inc. from closing down after abandoning Heyday.

"The idea of the product is, you're collecting and trading your favourite people. Like your Babe Ruth baseball cards," Chen said in an interview.

The privacy issue, however, lies with how "cards" are created. To put it simply, using Twitter's Application Program Interface (API), Stolen! turns anyone's Twitter profile into a card that anyone who plays the game can "buy" or "steal" using the in-game social currency or, eventually, actual money.

Instead of an opt-in system wherein Twitter users can expressly indicate their interest in being part of the game, Stolen! only has an opt-out system, which means that anyone who is followed by a player will be turned into a card. Players who steal a "card" can also write anything they want on the profile of the person they stole without any type of filter-that is, even people who unknowingly become part of the game as a card can be insulted and defaced without their knowledge.

"[Because Silicon Valley is] a very male-dominated environment, people who develop things like this often don't know what it's like as a woman or a minority on the internet where you are already targeted and attacked by people a lot, and any platform, no matter how good the intentions, is always open to being used for that kind of thing," Holly Brockwell, Founder and Editor of Gadgette who became one of the casualties of abuse via Stolen! remarked.

Chen went on to defend Stolen! saying that they would immediately ban any abuser and that anyone who signs up again would have to grind to earn enough in-game currency to steal cards again. He also revealed that a system to purchase in-game currency for $50 will eventually be set and any abuser who plans to keep on "harassing" people would have to pay money to do so.

However, when Brockwell expressed the obvious that it looks like Hey, Inc. is accepting money from people and allowing them to harass others, Chen seemed to have considered the possibility for the first time.

"You raise a really good point, we should not be profiting out of it. So you've made me consider something new," Chen said.

Perhaps Chen's team did not see the threat of abuse and harassment since they were only recreating profile cards instead of giving direct access to a person's Twitter account. Seemingly, none of them perceived that things could go overboard and make it out of their system considering the current technology we have.

In the end, the mass opt-out and complaints opened their eyes and saw how Stolen! can be used as a vehicle for abuse. Many of the original users who had good, clean fun with the game are not too happy about the development. Now, if there's anyone to blame, choose to blame the people who sold and acquired codes and ruined the fun for everyone by harassing people outside the game, not the casualties who chose to opt-out or those who expressed concern about their privacy.