An ad-free social platform that does not collect your data

For years we have traded who we are for free services online. Now the countermovement is here.

Most users are unaware of how extensive Facebooks’ data collecting is. An example: You go to a site. It has a Facebook like button. You look around, but don’t press the button. Your action is still registered by Facebook and added to all the information collected in your Facebook user account. While you are logged onto Facebook the site pretty much registers every other site you visit.

Facebook most likely knows what sort of phone you use, what car you drive, where you travel, who your friends are, where you live, where you currently are, where you are from, when your mom has her birthday, etcetera. In 2016 The Washington Post listed 98 different personal data points that Facebook uses to direct ads at you including what type of car you drive, what type of credit card you use, what time of the year you shop the most and how you vote.

In the last years strong criticism has been raised towards the company for this very reason.

Recently the French Data Protection Agency voiced concern regarding the popular messaging app WhatsApp (owned by Facebook). The app shares user information for “business intelligence” without having legal basis for it, the agency claimed.

In other words: WhatsApp shares your information to those who try to profit from it even though it is illegal under French law. The app for example shares users phone numbers with their owner.

Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 and started sharing data from the service to the wider social network’s ecosystem two years later. Warnings were immediately voiced but the information sharing kept on going. A fine of €110 million was issued by the European Data Commission in 2017.

A heavy fine yes, but it didn’t more than slightly disturb the enormous company. Facebook now has over two billion users and their total revenue for 2016 was 27,64 billion U.S. dollars – a number that is estimated to be significantly more for 2017.

The United Kingdom urged WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with Facebook and in Germany the Competition commission declared a statement a few months ago saying the network use its monopoly to “improperly amass third-party data on its users”.

The same goes for all major social media. Basically, for every online service that is free. They make up for not charging by making money of your information and data.

Idka is different. It is a new breed of social platform built from the idea that something is wrong in a society where privacy and integrity have lost their values. For years now the constantly expanding role of internet in our lives combined with more and more business models built on data as a commodity has undermined our privacy.

But there is always a counter movement.

Idka is a social platform that puts the user, not advertisers, in the front room. The company is created from the idea that who we are and what we believe in is sacred – and not for sale. As a user of Idka all your data remains yours and there are no advertisments. If you delete something it is actually deleted and gone forever. Not just removed from visibility but still stored as a possession of the service provider.

Idka is a place where you can connect, interact, collaborate, share ideas and thoughts without making who you are and what you engage in into a product. Try Idka now, www.idka.com

be social, stay private®