If Social Media Platforms Are Pledging to Not Sell Your Personal Data, Why Are They Still Collecting It?

CloutHub is the first social media platform to say, “No” to exploiting user privacy and “Yes!” to user choice and control of social media. We refuse to collect any identifying information from our users that they do not want to share. We give users control of what we know about them, something no other social media platform has done.

We created this revolutionary approach to user privacy and control after watching the Legacy Platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Google/YouTube – exploit their users’ personal information for profit and political purposes.

Many new platforms are pledging to not sell your personal information. However, according to their privacy policies they are still collecting intrusive data such as, unique device identifiers. This often includes the serial number of your phone and computer which can be used to track your movement or location.

One of our guiding principles at CloutHub® is to never track our users on our applications. We made the deliberate choice to not collect or record this type of user data, because we believe it is intrusive.

In a recent conversation with TMZ, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak expressed his concern about Facebook, “There are many different kinds of people, and some of the benefits of Facebook are worth the loss of privacy, but to many like myself, my recommendation is—to most people—you should figure out a way to get off Facebook.”

We agree, Woz, and that is why we are not collecting it!

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Censorship is Editorial Control

On July 11, 2019 President Trump will be hosting The Social Media Summit at the White House. This Summit comes in the wake of some disturbing information from whistleblowers within the Legacy Platforms regarding the suppression and deletion of content with which they do not agree. Facebook recently updated its policies to reflect that bias in the most startling and transparent way.

We expect the summit will include, among other topics, government regulation and control of social media. We believe this is not the answer. The answer is a competitive solution to the big data giants that wield so much control over public content and personal data. CloutHub® is the first such solution to the problems that big data has created on social platforms.

This is why we created the most transparent Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in the industry. We intend to set a new standard for social media platforms, because the old one is not working for users, content creators or educational institutions.

The MIT Technical Review chronicled how YouTube is removing educational and historical videos. Even videos that universities use as educational resources have been removed under their recently updated “hate speech” policy. This goes beyond censorship. YouTube seems to believe that it can actually wield its editorial power over history.

This cuts directly against the spirit of CDA 230, which is meant to “offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual activity.” 47 U.S. Code § 230 (a)(3).

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Users Are Not Commodities to Be Exploited

Shifting the paradigm is not an easy endeavor. We are not new to this. CloutHub® has been in development for a year with a business plan so strong we were accepted into the prestigious EvoNexus Incubator in Irvine, California.

Jeff Brain, CEO of CloutHub®, explained the vision, “CloutHub® considers our users customers, not commodities to be exploited. We are taking a novel approach to platform and data management. As part of this vision, we have made the decision to not collect or maintain records of users’ IP addresses or device identifiers, and to give our users control over what we know about them. We also do not use or allow any third-party trackers.”

Jeff developed his vision for CloutHub® after using other social media platforms. As a successful civic leader and CEO, he recognized that other platforms treated their users as a product to be exploited. CloutHub® intends to change that, starting now.

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