ello is a social network with no ads. It’s funded from the Foundry Group, down in Boulder.
Is ello legit? Their claim is no ads and that’s true. So yes, they’re legit. But the thinly veiled message there is privacy and in this regard, no, they’re not legit.
First, they’re funded by venture capital. VC’s need to make money and the way that most often happens is the company they fund is either bought or sold, within a few years. What that means is that ello will eventually be acquired, because I doubt they can produce the kind of cash flow to pay back the VC’s within 5 years, typically what a VC wants in order to do a deal. They’re funded by VC money. Whoever acquires them has the right to do whatever they want, including to start tracking users. It’s right here in their policy.
Second. There’s nothing in ello’s privacy policy that is a guarantee or even a promise of privacy. Their policy is the same bs seen over and over on the Internet. It’s better than Facebook’s, sure. But that’s not saying much. The coup de grace is that they can change their policy anytime, without the user’s consent.
ello is at best, a half ass attempt at privacy. I give them credit for no ads, but not much else.
Someone needs to build a social network based on privacy — guaranteed, forever. We tried, but we were a decade too early.
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