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An NSA-sized bomb was dropped terminal week when newspapers revealed that the U.Due south. government has been monitoring citizen communication data. By now, most of united states have this image burned into our brains:

A lot of familiar faces were among the sources the NSA has been pulling data from: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple, AOL, Skype, Facebook, YouTube, and … Paltalk?

Among all of the oh-and then-obvious outlets is Paltalk, a company that the NSA has been monitoring since December 2009 – longer than information technology'due south been looking at AOL, Skype, Apple, or YouTube. And then what exactly is this petty-known app, and why does the The states Regime intendance and then much about information technology?

What is Paltalk?

Paltalk (parent company, AVM Software) is a video chat app and offers the same features that a variety of video chat apps practice: Grouping video calling, mobile video calling, chat rooms. The company is based in New York and has been around for awhile; its initial launch was in 1998.

Paltalk bills itself as "the world's largest video chat community, with more than 4 meg active members." According to the visitor, what sets it apart is its ability to host hundreds of thousands of users at once, "including thousands of people inside a single chat room."

It's more than than just video chat, however. Information technology'southward also a text messaging and IM customer in the vein of IMO or Whatsapp – a device workaround so y'all tin text internationally and without using upward your monthly text limit (if you still have one).

Characteristic-wise, in that location's aught very notable about Paltalk. It's a moderately pop option for group chat purposes; information technology'south a Chrome Web Shop option. Perhaps what the app is most well-known is a harrowing story in which one user hanged himself in a grouping chat room where Paltalk users would insult one some other.

Second to this, Paltalk has earned itself something of reputation as a patent troll, having filed a handful of lawsuits against video game developers for violating its "server-group messaging system for interactive applications" patent. The success of these lawsuits has been varied.

All in all, there'southward nothing overly meaning about Paltalk. It'southward 1 of a million social video chat app communities; information technology's not the almost popular nor the least.

What does Paltalk say?

Paltalk issued a response regarding the PRISM reports. "We have non heard of PRISM," Paltalk told united states in a statement. "Paltalk exercises extreme care to protect and secure users' data, only responding to court gild as required past constabulary. Paltalk does non provide any regime agency with direct access to its servers."

Like other social apps and sites, Paltalk says that information technology will comply with the government when necessary. "Paltalk will fully cooperate with law enforcement in investigating or requesting data with respect to suspected criminal or other action and, notwithstanding any provision herein to the contrary, may release your name and other information to the advisable regime for that purpose, with or without subpoena." This isn't a surprising or unique Privacy Policy – most of them have that provision. Naught else about Paltalk's own policies or terms indicate why the NSA was interested in the information they provide.

Information technology'south not so much anything well-nigh Paltalk'southward own service that the NSA was interested in, though – it'due south who was using information technology and why. Paltalk is a pop app within the Muslim customs, and that apparently lends itself to the NSA's efforts.

Why Paltalk?

Paltalk is definitely more than social than something like Skype: Its chatrooms, which feels so circa 1999, accept become globally popular and feature some extremist and religious groups, debates, and organization. People from all over the world come into these chatrooms, and tin remain bearding, if they want.

There's no quantifying amount of extremist activeness that made Paltalk an NSA target, but a few interesting instances over the by few years definitely raised Paltalk'due south radar on the terrorist-threat forepart.

Final twelvemonth, terrorists who had plotted to plant an explosion in the London Stock Exchange and U.S. Embrassy were establish to be using Paltalk to coordinate. It was likewise a platform for terrorist supporters.

"Anjem Choudary, founder of the banned group Islam 4 Uk, Omar Bakri Mohammed, who acquired outrage in Great britain by praising the hijackers behind the September 11, 2001 attacks and was banned from re-entering the U.K. in the wake of the 7/7 bombings, and Abdullah el-Faisal, who was deported in 2007, were said to have joined forces to use the site to preach their message around the world," The Telegraph reported in 2012.

Way back in 2005, at that place were concerns that radical Islamist groups were using Paltalk to track Christians. "The countersign protected Arabic website, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly agile in debating Muslims on Paltalk," The New York Lord's day wrote in 2005. And in 2009, there were actually worries amid Israeli Paltalk users that it was being used a spying tool by jihadists.

Not all of the Middle Eastern users on Paltalk were corroborating for these purposes, of course: A 2002 story in the New York Times focused on how Iranian youth were using the site like a chat-friendly blog.

And during the Arab Leap, Paltalk saw a considerable bump in usage – and was fifty-fifty somewhen blocked by the Bahrain authorities when dissidents were using it to organize and send letters.

Alarmist or cautionary?

While Paltalk has shown traces of harboring terrorist activity (or maybe, more accurately, traces of people who talk nearly terrorist activity), does that brand it all that unlike from a variety of other sites and social apps? Ones that are have a bigger users base of operations and arguably more impact?

Y'all don't encounter Reddit on that list, or Twitter (both of which are infamous for protecting user information). Tumblr is missing as well, as is WordPress. There is tons of this stuff all over the Internet. It's difficult to imagine that Paltalk has more content that the U.Due south. government wants access to than these sites – but clearly, something has motivated the NSA to be keeping a watchful eye on Paltalk over the past four years.

Whether those motives are justified remains to be seen – and at these early stages of what we know about PRISM, debating that is an exercise in futility (you lot either retrieve this is a gross abuse of power and injunction of our freedoms or you think it's a protective measure to keep our country and citizens safe).

But that's the story of an app that flew under our collective radar for so long, but however managed to attract so much attending from the authorities. Apparently, the NSA is keeping a watchful heart out for the residual of us.

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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-is-paltalk/

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