Business and public sentiment towards Facebook and Google’s use of private, sensitive data is growing increasingly negative as they develop more products to harness and sell personal information for a profit.

In response to this concern, emerging technology startups are building user-friendly products with enhanced privacy features in areas such as social media, analytics, and online search.

Here are six startups leading the backlash against the social media and search giants:

Ello – the anti-Facebook social network with no ads

The ad-free Ello, known as the anti-Facebook social network, is the latest startup to go viral, capitalising on public concern about how personal data is being used. When it went viral earlier this month, it was registering over 30,000 sign-up requests per hour.

Ello’s dizzying rise and privacy-friendly appeal recently helped it secure $5.5m in funding. It also pledged that it will never show ads to users, meaning it won’t be selling private user data to advertisers.

Diaspora – the decentralised alternative to Facebook

The internet as we know it has a very centralised structure, meaning that the majority of data flows through a small number of companies, such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Google, for example, accounts for around 40% of all internet traffic.

With so much data in the hands of just a few major players, the risk of leaks, malicious hacks and intrusive pressure from spy agencies is at an all-time high and users are understandably concerned about how private their data will remain.

Read the Full Article: Source – IB Times
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/six-alternatives-google-facebook-battle-online-privacy-1472156

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