Threema, Proton, Brave, Tor Project and more are collaborating

In a new blog post, Threema explains that “The Privacy Pledge” initiative was founded with several partners. In addition to Threema, Proton, Brave and the Tor project are also on board. They want to show together alternatives to the procedures of the big technology companies, which transform the user into a product whose data is emptied and auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The companies, which are not named, would try not to advertise their current business model. Details of the collection and processing of data freely shared with third parties are deliberately scattered and overly complicated. Some of the providers that deserve criticism would even go so far as to advertise themselves as privacy-friendly, although the reality is completely different.

Some users are aware that all sorts of things are going on in the background, but they accept it as a necessary evil. Threema, Proton, Brave and the Tor Project along with several other service providers want to prove together that things can be done differently. But how do you achieve this? Well, with The Privacy Pledge, a pledge to which the participants in the project commit.

The official website describes everything in more detail. Basically, they want to defend 5 principles:

1. The Internet must be at the service of citizens. Therefore, it preserves human rights, is freely accessible to everyone – with free flow of information. Businesses should always put customer needs first.
2. Organizations should only collect the data they actually need for their services. They must obtain user consent and clearly explain what data is collected, what happens to the data, how and for how long it is stored and how to have it deleted.
3. User data must be securely encrypted during transmission and storage.
4. Online organizations need to maintain transparency about their identity and software. It should be made clear to the management where the company is located and which national legal situation applies. Your software should be open source as much as possible and open to independent audits by the security community.
5. Web services should be interoperable to the extent that this does not require unnecessary data collection or compromise security. This avoids “walled gardens” and ensures open competition that allows innovation.

In the end, it all seems very useful. It will be interesting to see if there will be even wider support with The Privacy Pledge, or if the whole thing will end up getting bogged down in a niche only noticed by tech enthusiasts.

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