then maybe Amazon should get in the business of Messaging... "personal cloud" seems to be a subject of interest of academic researchers too, Mylar being the latest (I think) [0].
[0] http://css.csail.mit.edu/mylar/ On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 1:28 AM, Daniel Roesler <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 2:56 AM, Wasa Bee <[email protected]> wrote: > > Because we don't see ads does not mean these companies' business model is > > not based on mining personal data... and selling it to someone else... We > > don't see ads in whatsapps, yet facebook presumably acquired it so it > could > > mine users' data and put ads in their corresponding facebook page. > > If the idea is to get UI experts to enhance the UI on top of OTR, I > surely > > like the idea. But I am not convinced that a good UI would be enough to > push > > private messaging to the mass without a proper business model that does > not > > rely on mining data. Any idea? > > Agreed. Non-data mining business models are pretty tough to scale, > unfortunately[1]. > > One possibility is for cloud storage providers (Dropbox, SpiderOak, > Box, etc.) to build E2E apps that use their cloud storage as the app's > backend. Their business model is based on selling storage, so they > don't have as much of a financial incentive to mine user data. > > Additionally, they could start to offer E2E alternatives to existing > popular apps, which could possibly bring in many new users to buy > storage from them. For example, I have a free SpiderOak account. If > SpiderOak started to offer a E2E apps that stored data encrypted on > its server, I might use up more space, which might push me into having > to upgrade to a paid account. > > I've explored this concept a bit with my byoFS project[2], where it > allows user to connect their own cloud storage to use as a webapp's > backend. It's a similar idea to the remoteStorage protocol[3], except > data is automatically encrypted before being sent to the connected > cloud storage. > > For a recent hackathon[4], I exploited the ability to make Dropbox > files public as a way to create an E2E encrypted chat with an unhosted > webapp[5]. The next chance I get, I'd like to make an E2E encrypted > social network that's hosted entirely on users' own cloud storage > accounts. > > Anyway, as cloud storage gets commoditized, I think providers are > going to be looking for ways to differentiate themselves, and building > E2E encrypted alternatives to existing apps may be a good way to > attract users. > > Daniel > > [1] - > http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/advertising-is-the-internets-original-sin/376041/ > [2] - https://github.com/diafygi/byoFS > [3] - http://remotestorage.io/ > [4] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTPimUSIWbI > [5] - https://diafygi.github.io/byoFS/examples/chat/ >
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