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So, if I understand correctly, this means that in the long-term you are going to nerf your (future) adblock feature and actually go a similar route the the Brav

by dhaavi 6y ago

So, if I understand correctly, this means that in the long-term you are going to nerf your (future) adblock feature and actually go a similar route the the Brave browser is going with their ad system? 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?

ian-bateman 6y ago
We are still evaluating the best way to go about this, but yes, we've been looking at the way Brave approaches it as well (though of course, we'd like to do it in such a way that everyone's incentives align / we don't compromise user privacy in any way whatsoever). Short term, I'm self-funding the company (day job + previous exit of an entirely unrelated company).
- dhaavi 6y ago
  Self-funding! This is great, did not expect something like this coming from VC-land SF. We at https://safing.io/ 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.
  - ian-bateman 6y ago
    Thanks! Yeah it's definitely been a challenge, but I think it's worth the effort to try to make sure we're keeping incentives properly aligned and really get things right before we try to scale up! > 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?
    - dhaavi 6y ago
      > Curious what sources you receive public funding from? We list everything in detail here: https://safing.io/ownership/#influences https://safing.io/ownership/#influences

by dhaavi 6y ago

ian-bateman 6y ago

We are still evaluating the best way to go about this, but yes, we've been looking at the way Brave approaches it as well (though of course, we'd like to do it in such a way that everyone's incentives align / we don't compromise user privacy in any way whatsoever). Short term, I'm self-funding the company (day job + previous exit of an entirely unrelated company).

dhaavi 6y ago
Self-funding! This is great, did not expect something like this coming from VC-land SF. We at https://safing.io/ 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.
- ian-bateman 6y ago
  Thanks! Yeah it's definitely been a challenge, but I think it's worth the effort to try to make sure we're keeping incentives properly aligned and really get things right before we try to scale up! > 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?
  - dhaavi 6y ago
    > Curious what sources you receive public funding from? We list everything in detail here: https://safing.io/ownership/#influences https://safing.io/ownership/#influences