Questioned by the Ministry of the Interior concerning the risks for adolescents who use it, the Ten Ten application defends itself, citing its safeguards.
It’s a resounding success, for which the creators of the Ten Ten application were not necessarily prepared. Over the past few days, the French application, which transforms your smartphone into a walkie-talkie, has been at the heart of the attention of the authorities, after a million downloads in France. Considered very intrusive, it allows you to speak to a contact, in real time, and “out loud”, using the speaker of your smartphone.
This June 5, the creators of Ten Ten were received by the office of Secretary of State for Digital Marine Ferrari, a few hours after a public warning from the Ministry of the Interior. Several elements are mentioned. But are the fears really justified?
Ten Ten collects personal data
TRUE
According to Ten Ten’s terms of use, the application collects personal data, like most commercial applications. Among them “name, telephone number, username, contacts or other information of a similar nature”. Data that can be used “when such use is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate commercial objectives” specifies Ten Ten on its site.
Commercial objectives which are currently unknown, the application does not broadcast any targeted advertising. Speaking to the American media Techcrunch, the founder of Ten Ten, Jules Comar, assures that he has “lots of ideas” to monetize the application subsequently, without revealing more details.
To work Ten Ten initially required total access to all of the user’s contacts. Access which is no longer necessary, the application specifies to Tech&Co.
When installing Ten Ten, however, it always requires access to the smartphone’s microphone (to be able to speak to other users), to notifications (to be notified when an interlocutor is speaking, including if the application is closed) and to the “Don’t” mode. do not disturb” (so that the app mutes itself if enabled).
Ten Ten collects location
Fake
Also on Twitter, the Ministry of the Interior mentions “location” among the personal data collected by Ten Ten. An erroneous statement, Ten Ten assures Tech&Co. And for good reason, no access to the GPS position is necessary, and the Ten Ten application is not one of those that requires access to the location of the mobile, unlike applications like Tiktok, Instagram or Snapchat .
Ten Ten can’t be cut
Fake
Despite its particularly intrusive nature, Ten Ten does have options for being cut. Thus, it is possible to activate a “mute” mode for one or more users. An option which can be temporary or permanent, and which does not necessarily involve turning off your smartphone or switching it to “Airplane” mode.
Ten Ten can amplify cyberbullying
Partly true
Concerning Ten Ten, the Ministry of the Interior mentions an increased risk of online harassment and contact with malicious individuals. A partly justified remark, but which nevertheless implies some clarifications.
To contact an Internet user on Ten Ten, two steps are necessary. First, get your “PIN”, a random sequence of numbers and letters. Unlike other social networks or Whatsapp, it is therefore impossible to find someone by their name or telephone number.
But this safeguard is not always sufficient: on social networks, and in particular on Tiktok, many young Internet users share their Ten Ten “PIN code”, in order to be contacted.
Once an Internet user’s “PIN code” is registered in Ten Ten, the latter must subsequently accept the request, in order to be contacted by voice. Here again, security which therefore depends on the judgment of users, sometimes very young and little informed about the risks of social networks.
Ten Ten causes turmoil in classes
Partly true
The possibility of suddenly making one’s voice sound on the speaker of one’s contacts’ smartphones is much more intrusive than what applications usually used for voice exchanges offer – starting with Whatsapp.
With such a practice, the risk of vocal intrusions in classes is significant. From Tech&Co, the application assures that despite the million downloads, the phenomenon is marginal.
However, Sophie Vénétitay, deputy general secretary of the SNES-FSU teaching union, notes that cases of disruption in class have been reported by teachers, without however the phenomenon being described as a “groundswell”.
Speaking to Tech&Co, she adds that teachers often face “surprised and confused students who did not understand that the application could be triggered even when the phone is locked”.
“Beyond the disruption of classes, what is striking is to see the students completely unaware of the dangers on the issue of the use of personal data” she concludes.
