Zepeto and the Tracking Allegations

With 10 million users and counting, it’s no surprise that Zepeto is growing massively in size. It’s a social media platform where you design a 3D model after yourself and find friends. It seemingly blowed up overnight even though it was used by the fans of k-pop. The company behind this app, Snow Corperation and Naver Corp., have grown in popularity. But sadly in popularity, it ended up causing a massive hoax.

On Twitter over the Thanksgiving break, a rumor spread around about how Zepeto steals your information. In the orignal post they said that it started in a Snapchat group chat and from there spread massively. People then started saying that if you had your volume at 100 and really listened, you could hear static. They also pointed out that in the beginning it asks you for permission to use your camera and doesn’t ask again. Luckily, people debunked this claim by stating that the app never asks you for your location, which is probably makes it way easier to track someone. Not only that but the company, Snow Corporation, is known for making filters for your phone, not stealing identities. Naver Corp., the parent company and one of the biggest search engines in South Korea, hasn’t released a statement talking about the allegations.

Personally, I find this whole situation reminiscing of the scandal a few years ago of the app Talking Angelica where people claimed to be stealing information and recording kids. This also happened with Pokemon Go when it was released and people said it would track you. I’ve been using the app for 4 days now and it seems completely safe, only complaint is the lagginess brought in by the fact that there’s so many people using the app now. I don’t see a problem with the app and I doubt there will be one.