On the (non-)anonymity of anonymous social networks

Abstract

The anonymity provided by the so-called anonymous social networks is studied in this paper. In particular, five popular anonymous social networks - namely, Social Number, Anomo, Whisper, Candid and the Yik Yak - are being analysed, in terms of investigating the data that are being processed by the corresponding mobile applications on Android systems. The results show that there is personal data processing in place which in some cases may result in tracking or even identification of the users and, thus, anonymity is not ensured.