A Solution to Privacy Leaks?

The goal of social networks is for users to share and connect with other users. The last decade has seen the explosion of new social networks companies with the example of Facebook gathering all over the world 800 million addicts. 800 million people who share all kind of information on any topics they are interested in. By extensively encouraging us to be more “connected”, we have unconsciously started to give away all our private information to a gigantic database. Do I need to let my phone number be available to the world? Do people really need access to my phone number? Are they even interested in getting my phone number? Probably not. Yet, revealing our private information has become a norm in a society where all of our life can be found on the internet.

On the other hand, we get scandalized when Facebook (often) faces security issues. And there is more room to be shocked when we think of what they do with our data - including selling them to third parties. Well, it means that we still value our private lives. Four NYU students claim they found the solution to this matter and founded a new social network called Diaspora*. Diaspora* is based on the principle that we want to keep control over the information we share. When we post of picture on whatever social network we use, the information is directed to a centralized hub so we basically lose control of it. Computers are more powerful than ever, so Diaspora* proposes a decentralized social networking system where your information is directly sent to the people you want to share it with. Diaspora* already lunched the alpha version of their social network, the beta version should rise pretty soon. We can only wish them to succeed with this great idea. Check out the video for more information.

Cheers!

Sources:

http://www.helium.com/items/1835414-what-is-the-diaspor

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr

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