The provocative crime reporting app Citizen, formerly known as Vigilante, has once again made headlines for the wrong reasons. The app publicly released the singer’s address to thousands of people last week, following an alleged burglary at the home of famous singer Billie Eilish.
Shortly after the theft, the app notified users of a break-in case in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, including the address of the house. As reported by Vice, Citizen’s message was updated at 9:41 pm to indicate that the house belongs to Eilish. According to Citizen’s metrics, the alert was sent to 178,000 people and viewed by about 78,000. The next morning, Citizen updated the app’s description of the event, replacing the exact address with a nearby intersection.
Although the home addresses of celebrities can usually be found without much difficulty, we can say that it is the first time that a popular application has distributed the home address of one of the biggest stars of pop music to thousands of users.
This isn’t Citizen’s first incident.
When Citizen launched as Vigilante in 2016, Apple quickly pulled the app from the App Store, citing concerns that it encouraged users to throw themselves into dangerous situations. So, after rebranding as Citizen with a new focus on security, Apple has reopened its doors to the app. The app began advising users to avoid ongoing events while providing tools to help those stuck in a dangerous situation. While it may sound plausible, at least some stories reveal an overzealous company that prioritizes profit over social responsibility.
In May 2021, CEO Andrew Frame launched a livestream (based on a tip-off from an LAPD sergeant and emails from residents being questioned by the police) encouraging users of the app to catch a suspected bushfire arsonist. He offered a $10,000 reward for finding the suspect, which later increased to $30,000 later in the evening. As the “hunt” continued, the CEO went further, sending his team a “catch this guy before midnight” message in an all-caps message in one of his internal Slack conversations.
When the police announced that they had made an arrest that night, the team celebrated, believing they had secured the arrest. The only problem was that Citizen was after the wrong guy. Frame had promised a public reward for a wrongfully accused suspect and launched a hunt.
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