Andrey Ternovskiy, speaking in an interview with The New York Times Bits blog, stated, "There is a certain level of anonymity on the Chatroulette that Chatroulette Map takes away, but I plan to add something to my site to allow them to still hide their whereabouts."
Chatroulette Map highlights a Chatroulette user's location by looking at his or her IP addresses, which is revealed via the peer-to-peer nature of the webcam connection. As well as placing a marker on a map, users are screengrabbed, offering anyone in the world a brief sneak peak through a stranger's webcam.
This has drawn criticism from privacy advocates, although those behind Chatroulette Map say they will remove an image and marker on request if e-mailed a matching photo to ensure the authenticity of the request.
Seventeen-year-old Ternovskiy, a Russian student currently visiting the U.S., says of Chatroulette Map, "I enjoy it," but obviously realizes his users -- some of which appear to have a penchant for public nudity and masturbation -- might be less likely to use the service without the anonymity it previously offered.
However, this does not mean Ternoviskiy is green-lighting the use of the service for such NSFW activities. He has introduced a "report" button, which will see someone "reported" three times banned from the service.