Billie Eilish Got Doxxed on the Citizen App

Pop celebrity Billie Eilish’s dwelling deal with in Highland Park, California was reportedly leaked to 1000’s of individuals by way of a push notification from Citizen, an app that enables customers to watch crime and breaking information occasions in actual time.

Last night time, an incident in Highland Park, California was reported at 9:15 p.m. PST and a push notification was despatched out on the Citizen app, after police acquired a 911 name of a residential housebreaking. A report from KTLA says that the decision got here from the house’s housekeeper, who wasn’t dwelling however acquired an alert from a tool that confirmed the suspect on digicam. Fifteen minutes later, police apprehended the suspect who reportedly fought with legislation enforcement earlier than he was taken into custody.

Shortly after that, the id of the home-owner was revealed by police to be pop singer/songwriter Billie Eilish’s household dwelling. The buck didn’t cease there, nevertheless, as, per Vice, the push notification included the precise deal with and was despatched to over 178,000 individuals in keeping with the app’s metrics, with almost 78,000 customers actively viewing that notification.

But on Friday morning the Citizen app all of a sudden modified the deal with of the incident, eradicating the precise deal with and as an alternative opting to solely word the cross streets: “The address reported for this incident has changed to Meridian St & N Avenue 57,” at 7:24 a.m. PST.

The capability for Citizen to disclose dwelling addresses on its platform does increase some crimson flags, particularly for a determine corresponding to Eilish, who’s a well-known movie star. The houses of celebrities like Sandra Bullock, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, and Simon Cowell have all been reportedly damaged into, and in some instances these suspects have been alleged stalkers and/or carried weapons.

While movie star addresses are often not too exhausting to search out on the Internet, there’s something to be stated about Citizen actively figuring out the deal with of a well-liked movie star and notifying upwards of 178,000 customers of that deal with. Citizen’s privacy policy does make mentions of location knowledge with claims of storing private knowledge to “as short a duration as possible,” however this solely applies to app customers, not these concerned with crimes reported on the app.

Citizen didn’t instantly return Gizmodo’s request for remark.