Ghahramani Seeks to Provide Privacy-First Social Media Network
July 4, 2016
Here’s an interesting question: how many Facebook friends do you have? Here’s a follow-up: how many of them do you actually know? How many of them do you talk to? How many of them have you actually seen in the last year?
Ok, so you’ve realized you have a small handful of friends worth keeping in contact with, yet, you still can’t seem to let go of Zuckerberg’s monster, eh? Interestingly enough, there are quite a few listed reasons to delete your Facebook account out there, including a myriad of privacy issues–and this is where advocates like Frederick Ghahramani step in.
Privacy Advocate Frederick Ghahramani
Just10 CEO Frederick Ghahramani
Frederick Ghahramani is a Canadian tech entrepreneur who was born in and emigrated from Iran. He’s a notable figure in the Canadian tech space, where he donated $ 1 million to fight against Bill C-51, Canada’s controversial Government Spying & Anti-Terrorism Law. He’s stated his reason for doing so is that sweeping surveillance measures contained in Bill C-51 undermine some of the central Canadian values that prompted his family to emigrate from Iran and leave behind an oppressive totalitarian regime.
Obviously, Ghahramani is devoted to privacy. His latest venture, Just10, is a social media alternative with the primary purpose of urging normal, everyday citizens to be extremely cautious when it comes to Internet privacy. The idea of Just10 is that you only really have 10 friends on social media, so why not enjoy connecting with the most important people in your life in a secure environment? Here’s his statement, directly from the website:
“We’re working day and night to build a clean, simple, social network that’s free from advertising and third party tracking. A viable alternative, that gives you the power to share, without having to compromise on your privacy or security. And most importantly, a service that we can confidently recommend to our own families because we know it places their privacy rights above all else.”
Preserving Privacy and Protecting Liberties
There are a few questions that this approach raises, such as: if there isn’t going to be any advertising, how is this business going to make money? Are you going to be selling the email lists generated by user sign up? Is it actually possible that Ghahramani is doing this as a philanthropic gesture out of the goodness of his own heart? In response to the last question, the answer might actually be ‘yes’.
Gharani has apparently already donated $ 200,000 to Canadian charity Kids Help Phone and continues to support it with digital outreach campaigns. On top of that he’s been reported have purchased a controversial piece of political art titled Emperor Haute Couture–a nude painting of the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper meant to illuminate his dismissive disposition–just to share it with high-schools and universities at no-cost.
That said, it’s entirely plausible that Ghahramani fully intends to capitalize on this later–though it’d be hard to blame him. This is essentially private unified communications, and businesses could benefit greatly from that. However, in the above statement taken from the Just10 website, there’s one word that stands out: “family”.
Do many feel safe letting their kids loose on Facebook, nowadays? Maybe this guy is onto something here.
For a man like Ghahramani, who seems focused on “greater good causes” and philanthropy projects, it’s entirely possible that all he is trying to do is create a safe space for friends and family to interact online–and in a world where privacy is fast drying up, maybe that’s exactly what we need.
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