Does that allay OPs concerns though? What happens if tracking-based ads are significantly more profitable than private ones (probably the case, based on the huge revenues of Google/Meta)? How high would the paid account fees need to be to offset the ad revenue?
What happens if you.com is very successful and goes public, so that the pressure to squeeze out as much money as possible slowly erodes the original good intention?
(I appreciate that you took the time to respond to this btw, super cool to be able to interact directly! The magic of HN.)
Yea. These are valid concerns.
We care a lot about privacy and are making public statements and commitments to it.
Technically any privacy-focused business (proton, ddg, etc) could pivot and change their mind but the hope is that by starting with those commitments potential future shareholders would understand that the erosion of trust would hurt the brand and not push for it?
What happens if you.com is very successful and goes public, so that the pressure to squeeze out as much money as possible slowly erodes the original good intention?
(I appreciate that you took the time to respond to this btw, super cool to be able to interact directly! The magic of HN.)