In August, a mysterious Instagram account with the username “peek.campo” and a bio description “Something’s coming to campo 👀” began populating Campo students’ social media feeds. One by one, the account began requesting to follow Campolindo students, gaining over 500 followers in a matter of weeks. Among the slough of followers that the account received, junior Finley Cattell encountered the account after it tried to follow her during the summer. “I initially thought it was some freshman doing some cringy thing. But I followed it back just because I saw that everyone was following it back.”
In the past, multiple Instagram accounts with intriguing intentions have emerged, including the parking accounts that photographed examples of good, neutral, or bad parking jobs at Campo. However these accounts have largely been run or affiliated with actual students: Peek is not.
The Peek account is not a lone case, seemingly mirroring others in the area. Of those, a “peek.miramonte,” a “peek.laslomas,” and even a “peek.bhhs” (for Beverly Hills High School) are the most relevant examples. All the mystery broke Monday though when the “peek.campo” account announced what its actual purpose was: to promote a new social media app. It even used the slogan “TMRW, THE WAY WE SEE OUR FRIENDS WILL FOREVER CHANGE.”
The app that the account is promoting is called “Path – Your Friends Live” on the App store, and uses AI and location tracking to update your friends about your status. Throughout Tuesday evening, the Peek account started offering limited spots to the app for students one grade at a time. After downloading the app, students would select their high school and then be prompted to accept a term of conditions to allow for things like location tracking and even microphone access. And while some students downloaded the app, rumors about its safety began to spread, especially with the terms and conditions of the app being disregarded.
“Everyone started posting on their private stories, saying, ‘Don’t click the link! Don’t download the app! It’s a hacker app!’” said Cattell.
Yet upon further investigation, The Claw found that the organization behind the account and the app itself, Peek, which is a software development group located in the Bay Area, may not be from a dubious source. In fact, it’s affiliated with former Campo students. According to his LinkedIn page, Campo alumni Aditya Kapur has served as a Head of Growth & Strategy for Peek on the West Coast for the past 6 months. And on Peek’s own Linkedin page, over 15 college-aged students are associated with the company.
While the founder remains unclear, the developer website explains that “Peek uses your phone’s mic to help you capture little stories and authentic moments from your day. You can pick different narrators to read your stories, and post them to your diary or share with close friends. It makes it fun + easy to stay connected with your friends’ days. Just turn it on, leave it in the background, and Peek creates live stories of what you’re up to…”
Further research found that Peek has its own Instagram account with the username “peekapp.live” where they post promotional videos to download the app. They’ve also expanded their operations to college campuses, promoting the app with their “peek.nyu” and “peek.ucla” accounts.
While the web of information available on Peek is broad, its growth in the past few days as a topic of mass discussion has been astonishing. As it says on its Linkedin page, “Peek is an authentic, real, frictionless, window into the lives of your friends.” The only question is if Campo is ready for just that.
*This article is based on an initial investigation and may be updated as new information comes to light. Please contact the Campo Claw staff for any questions or concerns regarding this issue.
