We're still exploring different methods of monetization, but leaning towards an Adblock-Plus style model at the moment (but would want to keep any ads we served entirely local / we'd never send any data off device & would want to be as transparent about everything as possible). Personally, I think it keeps our interests best aligned with those of our users & helps keep the focus on preserving user privacy!
The privacy community did not react positively _at all_ to this. This also has gotten them quite a lot of negative media coverage.
Also, how are you funded short-term? Like, right now?
Short term, I'm self-funding the company (day job + previous exit of an entirely unrelated company).
We at https://safing.io/ are also self-funded, but also receive a lot of public funding. Interestingly our visions are very similar, but our technical views seem to differ a lot.
I think monetizing a privacy product without having the user pay is extremely hard. There will need to be an extremely high amount of transparency everywhere.
> I think monetizing a privacy product without having the user pay is extremely hard. There will need to be an extremely high amount of transparency everywhere.
I would agree with this wholeheartedly -- we're still very early stages, but trying to keep things as open as possible in terms of our tech & intentions with everything.
> but also receive a lot of public funding.
Curious what sources you receive public funding from?
We list everything in detail here: https://safing.io/ownership/#influences