Funds Invest in Privacy Start-Ups ☀

Privacy has long been a problem for social networking sites and the internet in general. Well now it looks like private industry is getting prepped to lead a charge in correcting this wrong.

Wall Street Journal’s Pui-Wing Tam and Ben Worthen write:

As privacy snafus mount across companies such as Facebook Inc. and AT&T Inc., venture capitalists have spotted a new market opening and are pumping millions of dollars into privacy-related start-ups.

This new ‘privacy’ sector within social networking couldn’t be more timely. The potential benefits are plainly obvious for all of us who surf the web.

A new movement like this could set precedence and possibly ignite a more significant push for legislation aimed at protecting privacy across the internet.

Think these tech start-ups will succeed?

  • http://autiomaa.org Daniel Schildt

    Interesting move but actually there have been quite bit of security related startups before (many just haven't been focused on Facebook, etc.). Problem here is that it's difficult to increase privacy at of one the largest service providers when they say themselves that they want to focus on open communication. Security can be improved and some of these companies could do good amount “outsider” testing (with written permission of service provider…) that might make systems and APIs more stable and secure.

    It's good sign that people are developing several alternative social networks based on the need for more privacy (like Diaspora + few others) but that isn't going to help most of the people out there. By first focusing on securing major systems, maybe there would be more chance for others too.

  • http://techmiso.com/ Rich Chuckrey

    I was thinking more on the lines of legislation. Granted, there have been private efforts in the past to bolster privacy on the web, but it seems like this latest push is gaining traction on a larger scale…