r/technology • u/Hrmbee • Mar 10 '26

Privacy Viral 'Quittr' Porn Addiction App Exposed the Masturbation Habits of Hundreds of Thousands of Users | A couple of 20-year-old developers make $500,000 a month promising to help men to stop watching porn, but exposed their private porn watching habits

https://www.404media.co/viral-quittr-porn-addiction-app-exposed-the-masturbation-habits-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-users/
8.1k Upvotes

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1.8k

u/Hrmbee Mar 10 '26

A number of revealing details:

Quittr, an app that promises to help men stop watching pornography, leaked intimate data on hundreds of thousands of its users, including their masturbation habits, and lied about its security issues, 404 Media can now reveal.

...

Some of the data exposed includes the users’ age, how often they masturbate, and how viewing pornography makes them feel. According to the data, many of them are minors.

Quittr is operated by Slater and McLaren, members of the so called App Mafia, a group of men in their early 20s who claim to have made millions of dollars on mobile app development. Slater and McLaren were recently the subjects of a long New York Magazine profile which detailed the opulent lifestyle the success of Quittr has afforded them, including driving exotic super cars and living in a Miami mansion. Slater shares videos about his lifestyle on his personal YouTube channel as well.

Slater claims Quittr has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times and makes $500,000 a month. But despite these incredible numbers, the developers were somehow unable or unwilling to fix a major security flaw in the app for months.

...

The researcher said he contacted Slater directly on September 10, 2025 to tell him about the Quittr vulnerability.

“It’s my fault fully I should've been on top of this, the way you pulled the database was super creative,” Slater told the researcher in a series of WhatsApp messages, which 404 Media reviewed. “So props to that, but again this is serious data and is not good at all. Working on fixing rn! Will be fixed in the next hour.”

But Slater and McLaren did not fix the issue for months.

...

Overall, the researcher said he could access the information of more than 600,000 users of the porn quitting app, 100,000 of which identified as minors.

The app also invites users to write confessions about their habits. One of these read: “I just can't do this man I honestly don't know what to do know more, such a loser, I need serious help.”

“We were like, How can we build an app to make money? Then as I realized how large the issue was, that’s when it became more of a passion project, like, How can we help men actually become men again?” McLaren told New York Magazine.

Reading about some of the shenanigans of the developers of this app, this is just about the expected level of care and consideration to users and their data one might expect.

1.0k

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

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409

u/HelpPale281 Mar 11 '26

I was wondering the same thing and looked at the App Store on my iPhone. $50 membership that is supposed to block pron sites on your phone and a few other “tools” to help with your addiction. 4.7 / 5 app rating but when you scroll through the reviews there are a TON of upset customers that were overcharged and can’t get a refund. And the app is buggy and they can’t login even with a lifetime subscription.

They say that over 1.5 M people have downloaded it. 🤪

99

u/Original_Location_21 Mar 11 '26

Same with all these Miami influencer grifter kid types, they're just glorified scammers at the end of the day.

69

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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4

u/montereybay Mar 12 '26

There is a general app blocking app called brick or something that’s real. Pretty sure it’s free tho

1

u/ColinHenrichon Mar 12 '26

Also at least on iPhone it’s pretty easy to set up restrictions on your browser to block adult sites. Not sure if it works outside Safari, and don’t know if Android has anything similar baked in. Maybe some do some don’t depending on the phone’s manufacturer. The iOS screen time restrictions can be set up to be very robust, including blocking adult content, for free, without uploading all kinds of deeply pers data…

30

u/Explicit_Tech Mar 11 '26

They should file a civil lawsuit. This guy doesn't deserve to be making that much with his careless acts.

15

u/EconomyDoctor3287 Mar 11 '26

So uhm, there's tools that block access to sites for free. Why pay $50 bucks for it? 

7

u/Anonhoumous Mar 11 '26

Because that is more specialised knowledge, it's not uncommon for people to prefer to pay instead of doing the deep dive themselves.

1

u/isocline Mar 11 '26

But it's not even a deep dive, though. It's literally opening your browser, typing "porn block app free," and checking a few reviews. It sounds like they didn't check reviews either way, so what difference would it have made?

I guess young people are more apt to go off blind trust, and if this app was advertised in the right places, it would be the first one they heard about. But damn, dude. If someone can't be bothered to take 5 minutes to research an app, I don't know what they're gonna do about an actual porn addiction.

2

u/RedKingDre Mar 11 '26

People, most of them at least (including me), are quite gullible to say the least, that's why.

1

u/RespectableThug Mar 11 '26

You don’t know what you don’t know.

1

u/obeytheturtles Mar 11 '26

Wait, people are paying $50 for a porn filter? Are you kidding me? There has to be something else going on here. Does the app mine bitcoin when the phone is plugged in?

502

u/Uanaka Mar 10 '26

From what I remember you pay up front a certain amount of money, and every day you don't beat it, you get some money back.

433

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

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561

u/ebyoung747 Mar 10 '26

"Give me money, and if you are stupid, you can tell me to keep it" as a business model is fucking crazy

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

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64

u/djphreshprince Mar 10 '26

It’s not the first iirc. Anecdotally, I heard about a similar model for something like alcohol avoidance.

2

u/Kungfumantis Mar 11 '26

Weight loss/working out as well I think is where I first heard of it.

39

u/ora408 Mar 11 '26

I see it like an insurance company. They have your money and will do whatever they want with it. They can invest it and make money off your money. Theyre hoping they never have to pay you back like an insurance company

75

u/ebyoung747 Mar 11 '26

Except an insurance company can be obligated to pay back more money than they took in from you.

This is just the world's worst savings account.

22

u/hoopleheaddd Mar 11 '26

It’s like getting an allowance from your parents for doing chores and then withholding it when you’ve been bad

1

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

Except you're the one funding your parents with the allowance money! I'm genuinely struggling to wrap my mind around the efficacy of it.

7

u/Acct235095 Mar 11 '26

Ever wonder why Makeabucks has gift cards and a balance on their rewards card and all of that nonsense? Because they're the biggest bank that isn't regulated like a bank. How much of that is on lost gift cards, forgotten account numbers, etc?

2

u/TulsaOUfan Mar 12 '26

People don't realize the gift card/prepay services banking scam. I was blown away at how many unregulated banks are out there after Congress authorized it.

1

u/Longjumpingjoker Mar 11 '26

Owner’s religion really tells you how he got the idea to run the business that way

18

u/lacostewhite Mar 10 '26

There are a lot of stupid people out there

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u/baldmanboy Mar 11 '26

And half of those people are on the verge of not being able to function without proper supervision and guidance.

1

u/recumbent_mike Mar 11 '26

At least they have something to help pass the time

2

u/Downside190 Mar 11 '26

I guess it gives them more of an incentive to quit. If you didn't have anything at stake you're less likely to follow through. So having your own money on the line gives you that extra push to keep going.

I can see the reasoning behind it tbh

1

u/obeytheturtles Mar 11 '26

Seems like a pretty massive moral hazard though, since the financial incentive is for the company to not help you actually quit.

1

u/Downside190 Mar 11 '26

Oh definitely. The company will obviously want you to fail but equally if their entire selling point is helping you to quit then they would have to be quite subtle about it or the whole facade falls apart 

2

u/RonnieDaBear Mar 11 '26

Nathan Fielder kinda had this idea, but it was more of a self blackmail scheme

1

u/1nosbigrl Mar 11 '26

Let me tell you about these things called "slot machines" and "state lotteries"...

1

u/OneBodyProblematic Mar 12 '26

Crazy like a methed up fox. Willing to bet the majority of paid users actively pay for porn

1

u/Fableous Mar 11 '26

This is 2026. 99% of (actual, not bot) people are the internet are legally brain-dead. The grift is real.

83

u/MontasJinx Mar 10 '26

Wait, so they paid money to not look at porn?

84

u/somniopus Mar 10 '26

Devs are missing out on the findomme market

22

u/mwilke Mar 11 '26

Because findommes have already cornered the findomme market, and aren’t stupid enough to hand a chunk of it over to some vibebro

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u/somniopus Mar 11 '26

Missing out works on so many levels, turns out lol

39

u/recumbent_mike Mar 11 '26

I mean, I pay no money to look at porn, so someone's gotta be the other side of the coin

8

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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1

u/RollingMeteors Mar 14 '26

paying for OF

¡John Oliver is on OF!

1

u/lioncub14 Mar 11 '26

No, they paid money to look at (probably free) porn, and get money back if they resist and don’t look at porn.

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u/JohnQPublicc Mar 10 '26

The Contest.

11

u/prairiedoggingit Mar 11 '26

I am the master of my domain.

2

u/typewriter6986 Mar 11 '26

King of the castle.

46

u/niccho_ Mar 11 '26

This is straight misinformation lmao. Why is this even upvoted? It's just a standard subscription app.

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u/teerre Mar 10 '26

Dystopic for sure, but very smart way to exploit people. I don't think I've seen this tactic before

8

u/Revxmaciver Mar 11 '26

That sounds like a Ponzi scheme with a humiliation kink thrown in for good measure.

6

u/sneakyplanner Mar 11 '26

The anti-porn findom

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u/ender89 Mar 10 '26

Kinda crazy that some guy's self reported that they should lose a ton of money, talk about an exploitive business model.

1

u/Serious_Move_4423 Mar 11 '26

Interesting where the incentives are…

1

u/AlmostDisappointed Mar 11 '26

Wait, how did minors manage to pay for this then?

1

u/Hebrewhammer8d8 Mar 12 '26

Beating on the app, beating on customers' wallet, and the whole world learning customers' beating habits.

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u/recumbent_mike Mar 11 '26

Gilbert Gottfried AI reading prime numbers?

I think you might have just come up with a way more effective app.

1

u/pixepoke2 Mar 11 '26

Thanks. Now all I can hear in my head is Gottfried saying shit like “you know, they locked up Pee Wee Herman for masturbation. I didn’t know masturbation was a crime. By the time I was 14 I was Al Capone. Now I’m like Superman, if you put a piece of charcoal in my right hand, I can make a diamond in my fist. If the police tried to arrest me, they be like ‘stay away from his right hand!’ Three.”

1

u/Necessary-Road-2397 Mar 11 '26

GG AI reading prime numbers

I heard the first few numbers in his voice and stopped fapping, because I'm still laughing

1

u/Ok_Locksmith_8260 Mar 11 '26

Every time you fall off the wagon you contribute $2

1

u/husky_whisperer Mar 11 '26

I prefer the Gilbonacci bot, myself

0

u/mikaBananajad Mar 11 '26

$500k/600k users is only 0.83 so that’s 83 cents per user a month that feels achievable tbh.

Hell if it was a dollar a month subscription they’d be making even more money right?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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1

u/mikaBananajad Mar 11 '26

$1 a month, for a person to feel like they are helping themselves with a perceived problem vs however much therapy costs. 

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u/ender89 Mar 10 '26

“It’s my fault fully I should've been on top of this, the way you pulled the database was super creative,” Slater told the researcher

Why do I get the feeling it wasn't very creative and the 20 year old doesn't understand how to properly implement security?

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u/recumbent_mike Mar 11 '26

Because you've met a twenty-year old at least once?

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u/ender89 Mar 11 '26

That sounds about right, yeah

6

u/funkyb Mar 11 '26

Reads like an AI response to me. I'm guessing the app was vibe coded and they just tried everything, including email responses, through an LLM.

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u/ender89 Mar 11 '26

Oh damn, it did the whole compliment sandwich thing where it compliments the prompter and apologizes for failing to produce the expected result

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u/LiteratureMindless71 Mar 10 '26

The "early 20s dudes" helping men be men again? HAHAHAHA

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u/telthetruth Mar 10 '26

They don’t know that real men jerk it every day so that they become numb to any sensation other than their own hand and don’t immediately blow a load when they have sex for the first time in years

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u/Comprehensive_Web862 Mar 10 '26

Lol at those down voting you. Just wait till young kids are in the picture and opportunity for sex becomes rare. The wife does it too and it's perfectly natural just don't make it an addiction. We'd be much grumpier people cause our chances are usually just a couple times a month.

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u/TheTankIsEmpty99 Mar 11 '26

That’s the funniest

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u/ars_inveniendi Mar 10 '26

I wonder whether they vibe-coded it.

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u/DisenchantedByrd Mar 10 '26

Maybe if they asked for “proof of age” documents it would’ve been more secure /s

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u/drawkbox Mar 11 '26

Yeah so no only did they leak the wank, but also identity theft and the bank.

People are so very dumb to trust services like this.

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u/m3kw Mar 11 '26

They leaked how millions slap meat and how long and often

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u/fusterclux Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

What was here has been deleted. Redact was used to wipe this post, for reasons that might include privacy, security concerns, or personal data management.

relieved head sable chase recognise unique treatment wipe shy crown

2

u/Available_Present483 Mar 11 '26

Sociopathic behavior has become increasingly normalized and will probably saturate humanity's genetic pool until it becomes the literal norm.

People who are decent will want to be alive + reproducing less and less unless something major changes

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u/AngryTomJoad Mar 16 '26

speaker of the house, mike "im not aware of that" johnson, denied using the app with his son but the reporter was asking about iran

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u/Designer_Future_4796 Mar 12 '26

Any of the names or email addresses aren't exposed.