Advertising and Recommender System Transparency

Last Updated: 2026-04-08

This document reflects current DSA obligations. Whisper is an 18+ platform; in the event that a user under 18 is identified, their account will be suspended in accordance with our Age Restriction and Child Safety Policy.

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Part A: Advertising Transparency (DSA Art. 26)

1. How We Display Advertising

Whisper displays advertisements in the feed and in books. All advertisements are clearly labelled with the indicator [Ad]. Whisper does not permit users under 18; if a minor is identified on the platform, their account will be suspended.

2. Information Provided for Each Advertisement

Each advertisement displayed in Whisper includes an AdChoices icon, provided automatically by Google’s advertising technology and visible in the corner of the ad. Tapping this icon opens Google’s “About This Ad” page, which provides:

• Confirmation that the content is an advertisement
• The name of the advertiser on whose behalf the ad is displayed
• The name of the entity that paid for the ad, if different from the advertiser
• The primary parameters used to determine why you are seeing this ad
• Links to manage your ad personalisation preferences

3. Advertising Parameters

Whisper is restricted to users aged 18 and older. Advertisements may be targeted based on the following parameters, which are managed through Google’s advertising technology:

Parameter	Examples	User Control
Contextual	Content you are currently viewing	Not applicable
Geographic	Country, region, city	Partial (via consent form)
Demographic	Age range, gender (if provided)	Yes (via consent form)
Interests	Inferred from your in-app activity, where available	Yes (via consent form)
Device	Operating system, device type	No
Advertising ID	Mobile advertising identifier	Yes (via device settings)

We do not target advertising based on:

• Special categories of personal data (Article 9 GDPR)
• Data of any user identified as being under 18 (such users are suspended upon identification)

4. Managing Your Advertising Preferences

You can manage your advertising preferences through:

• In-app: Settings > Privacy & Ads — opens Google’s consent form, where you can review and update your choices
• Device settings: iOS: Settings > Privacy > Tracking; Android: Settings > Privacy > Ads
• Advertising ID: You can reset or limit use of your mobile advertising identifier at any time through your device settings

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Part B: Recommender System Transparency (DSA Art. 27)

1. How Content Recommendations Work

Whisper uses content ordering and ranking systems to present content that may be relevant to you. This section explains how these systems work and what influences them.

2. Recommender Systems in Use

System	Where Used	Purpose
Home Feed	Main feed	Shows books from accounts you follow and public books from other users
Book Answers Feed	Inside a book	Shows answers submitted to a book, ordered by most recent
User Search	Search screen	Returns user accounts matching your search query

3. Main Parameters Used in Recommendations

Home Feed:

• Following relationship — books from accounts you follow are shown as a priority and are always included in your feed
• Recency — content is ordered by publication date, most recent first, within each content group
• Content similarity — public books from accounts you do not follow may, where sufficient interaction data is available, be ranked by similarity to your past activity on the platform (e.g. the books you have contributed to). Where this data is not yet available, content is shown in chronological order

Book Answers Feed:

• Recency — answers are displayed in reverse chronological order
• Viewer’s own answer — your own answer, if submitted, is shown first on the first page

User Search:

• Text match — results are returned based on how closely usernames match your search query

The relative weight of each parameter may change over time as the platform develops. This document will be updated to reflect any significant changes.

4. How to Influence Recommendations

You can influence what content appears in your feed:

• Follow accounts whose content you enjoy — their books will always appear in your home feed
• Interact with content on the platform — your activity may, over time, influence which public books are suggested to you
• Report content you do not wish to see — reporting a book or answer removes it from your feed

5. Non-Profiled Option

Content in the Home Feed is currently displayed in reverse chronological order. Books from accounts you follow are shown as a priority. Public books from accounts you do not follow are shown in chronological order and, where sufficient data is available, may additionally be ranked by similarity to your past interactions on the platform.

Whisper is an 18+ platform. In the event that a user under 18 is identified, their account will be suspended in accordance with our Age Restriction and Child Safety Policy. As such, no minor-specific feed configuration is applicable.

If Whisper is designated as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP), a non-profiled chronological feed option will be made available to all users.

6. More Information

For more details about our recommender systems, contact us at office@whisper-app.net.

If we deploy AI-generated or AI-modified content detection tools, we will publish meaningful information about such tools’ capabilities and limitations and provide appropriate user controls, with appropriate safeguards for all users.