Marco Polo is less a video call app and more a video sharing app. There are no real-time calls. Instead, users record and share videos (or texts or audio-only recordings)--called Polos--with people in their contacts. Record a video of you dancing with your dog. Upload it and leave it for your friend or family group. They'll hop on and view it when they have a moment and reply with a video of their own. Call, respond, Marco, Polo. Get it? Marco Polo has been around since 2014. Thanks to pandemic growth, some enthusiastic celebrity users like P!nk, Amy Poehler, and Ice T, and apparently the US state of Utah (which one report said has the app's biggest user base, who knew?), Marco Polo now has over ten million users worldwide.
¿Qué podría pasar si algo falla?
Marco Polo seems to do an OK job protecting your privacy. It uses encryption in transit and at rest. It does not use stronger end-to-end encryption because they say they want to be able to retrieve those precious memories of yours stored on their servers if you happen to lose your phone. One thing that does worry us a little is how Marco Polo handles the deletion of those precious Polo videos. If you chose to delete your account, remember to delete all your Polos first, as it appears users aren’t able to delete these videos after you delete your account. And any Polos you don’t delete can remain accessible to other users. What's the worst that could happen? Well, we’d hate for that super embarrassing Polo you sent that one drunken night to remain available to dig up even after you delete your Marco Polo account. No one needs that stuff hanging around the internet forever.
¿Me puede espiar?
Cámara
Dispositivo: No aplica
Aplicación: Sí
Micrófono
Dispositivo: No aplica
Aplicación: Sí
Rastrea la ubicación
Dispositivo: No aplica
Aplicación: Sí
¿Qué se puede usar para registrarse?
Correo electrónico
No
Teléfono
Sí
Cuenta de terceros
No
¿Qué datos recopila la empresa?
Información personal
Name, photo, mobile number, email, birth day and/or birth month, voice from video calls
Información biométrica
Información social
Contacts, the content you create, including videos (or “Polos”), photos, short video clips you share with selected contacts (or “Scrapbook moments”), and text messages.
¿Cómo utiliza la empresa estos datos?
¿Cómo puedes controlar el uso de tus datos?
¿Qué historial tiene la compañía en cuanto a la protección de los datos de los usuarios?
In the past, Marco Polo sent text message invitations from your phone to your top contacts without explicit permission. These invitations used your nickname from their contact list, thus personalising a message like "Hi bunny! Please download Marco Polo app, so that I can send you a video!"
¿El producto se puede usar sin conexión?
¿La información de privacidad es fácil de entender?
The privacy policy is written using overly abstract language, and it seems to hide the app's weaknesses behind legalese clauses.
Enlaces a información de privacidad
¿El producto cumple nuestros estándares mínimos de seguridad?
Cifrado
No end-to-end encryption, but encryption at rest and in transit.
Contraseña fuerte
There is no password requirement in Marco Polo. To sign up, an SMS authentication is used.
Actualizaciones de seguridad
Marco Polo is updated weekly, and each update is annotated with what is new.
Gestiona las vulnerabilidades
Vulnerabilities can be reported here https://www.marcopolo.me/vulnerability-policy/
Política de privacidad
¿El producto usa IA?
¿Es poco confiable esta IA?
¿Qué tipo de decisiones toma la IA acerca de ti o por ti?
¿La empresa es transparente acerca del funcionamiento de la IA?
¿Tiene el usuario control sobre las características de la IA?
Profundiza más
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Marco Polo has been around for years, but it’s blowing up amid the pandemicThe Verge
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Data Breach of the Week — Marco PoloAlly
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Someone knows something about this Marco Polo app that we don’tTechCrunch
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