On June 2, The Overseen published an article about Murmur and its use by a public safety agency during demonstrations. The article is inaccurate. It mischaracterizes both the product and the role of the trained personnel who use it.
Murmur does not label individuals. Murmur surfaces publicly available content that may be relevant to public safety and organizes it into categories, which each mission partner defines under its own policies. Every decision about what to do with that content is made by people at the agency, not by Tellwright and not by software.
Tellwright does not comment on mission partners or on any agency’s operations. We do not set policy. We make it possible for agencies to carry out the policies set by the communities and the elected officials they answer to.
Murmur analyzes only publicly available information. It does not access private messages or private accounts, and our Acceptable Use Policy has prohibited its use to monitor people solely for exercising rights protected by the First Amendment since Murmur was introduced in 2019. Our products are used only in accordance with applicable law.
Tellwright supports a free press and the right to protest peacefully. Before publication we offered The Overseen a background briefing on how Murmur works. That offer stands.
Media contact
press@tellwrightsystems.com