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Ask HN: German eng'd privacy first social network – what would you expect?

7 points by vislam ↗ HN
It seems like there is a window of opportunity with all the hate building up around facebook and it's privacy problems. I've been thinking about building a privacy first German engineered simple social network. Think facebook / instagram v1 without all the bells and whistles. Friend focused, no brands. Discovery via address book. Chronological timeline. No dark patterns (withholding likes etc). Verification via small ($1) initial payment (no bots).

To kick-start content I've been thinking about using human curated feeds per special interest group (like HN).

What would you expect from this, what would your concerns be?

9 comments

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tlarkworthy
How does it support itself financially?
vislam
Initial cost will be more than covered from the $1 verification fee. Once growth stagnates that will depend highly on the user base. I could see it being a freemium model with a subscription for additional features (like Tinder Plus/Pro).
new_guy
There's already 100s of social networks out there, what would you be bringing to the table?

Plus "German eng'd" throws up all kinds of red flags because they're part of five eyes and share all data with the US, so any German based site is going to be a complete non-starter for your presumed target demographic.

[deleted]
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vislam
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Just to clarify: Germany is not part of the five eyes [1].

Nonetheless I'd build it privacy first so the network/company doesn't even have access to most user data. -> E2E asymmetrical encryption where the network does not have access to any of the private keys. Think Signal for social networks.

Moderation will be an issue this way but I'd want to limit individual reach by design to make it very real world contact focused. Kind of like contacts work in Signal/WhatsApp/etc.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

Normille
>>Just to clarify: Germany is not part of the five eyes...

It is one of the US's poodles though.

vislam
While they are allies Germany is a sovereign country with it's very own (extremely) strict privacy laws (pre and post GDPR) that ask/require companies to implement what is called "Datensparsamkeit" - principle of data parsimony.

That being said it would be implemented privacy first anyway. If you trust the ~tech behind signal you can trust this network.

karmakaze
A social network that meets stated goals as well as GDPR cookie notices?

Seriously though, why do we in this global internet age need to have any national associations? State your mission/principles, operate to be compatible with similarly forward-thinking nations.

vislam
Yes, though thinking privacy first the site wouldn't use any cookies until you sign up and want to login. That's where the user should be asked for consent because the cookie is actually providing value for the user.

> global internet age need to have any national associations Generally I agree, in this specific case I don't. Germany has a strong brand around quality engineering, privacy and data security which is the main reason I'd emphasize it. Also in the EU strong voices are starting to emerge that are asking for a "local"/EU digital ecosystem since the US one based on data collection and ads is hard to regulate.