There is a new social network on the rise and it’s called Ello. Ello is a simple, beautiful,
and ad-free social network created by a small group of artists and designers. They say,
“We originally built Ello as a private social network. Over time, so many people wanted
to join Ello that we built a public version of Ello for everyone to use.” Ello doesn't sell ads.
Nor do we sell data about you to third parties. Virtually every other social network is run by
advertisers. Behind the scenes they employ armies of ad salesmen and data miners to
record every move you make. Data about you is then auctioned off to advertisers and data
brokers. You're the product that's being bought and sold.
Collecting and selling your personal data, reading your posts to your friends, and mapping
your social connections for profit is both creepy and unethical. Under the guise of offering a
"free" service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy. Ello thinks
ads are tacky, that they insult our intelligence and that we're better without them. Ello is
completely free to use. Ello occasionally offers special features to users. If they create a
special feature that you really like, you may choose to support Ello by paying a very small
amount of money to add that feature to your Ello account. You never have to pay anything,
and you can keep using Ello forever, for free. By choosing to buy a feature now and then for
a very small amount of money you support our work and help us make Ello better and better.
Now about that privacy thing. When you use Ello they collect some information related to your
visit. The information helps to understand in a general way how people are using Ello, so they
can make the social network better. Unlike virtually every other social network, on Ello you can
opt out of information sharing. Ello is currently invitation-only. To join Ello, you need to know
someone that is already on the network. Alternatively, you can request an invitation by visiting
the Ello Home Page. Sounds good to you so far? I’m wondering how long before Ello becomes
another Facebook after their popularity goes through the roof and the company is sold. Let’s
see how this plays out.