Privacy preserving everything. This past week we witnessed a mass migration from WhatsApp to Signal. Users fearing their privacy and afraid of how Facebook would use their private data migrated to Signal, another messaging platform which is run by a non-profit and provides end-to-end encryption and favourable privacy policies. One aspect of this migration was quite interesting because masses were encouraged by what I would call celebrities on the Internet, such as Elon Musk or Edward Snowden.
In the past years we have seen various episodes of privacy scandals and users changing platform or at least weeks of conversations and media coverage regarding privacy concerns. It is expected that the trend will continue, and we see that there is always a group of users that are willing to pay for services that otherwise they would get for free, just to obtain privacy. Which actually makes sense, if a service is free, those who run the platform make money either by ads or by selling your data. I don’t know who said it, but “if product is free, you are the product” or something along those lines. So basically these days I’m thinking about opportunities for business that provide privacy friendly X or Y or Z.