A new “super-private” social network, Minds.com, has been launched with a hope of taking on Facebook with the reported advantage of higher user privacy. Unlike its competitors, Minds does not aim to make money from gathering data, instead it encrypts all messages so they cannot be read by advertisers and the government.
Mark James, Security Specialist at ESET has commented on the advantages and disadvantages of Minds: “The trouble with any type of social network is that it is only as good as the user base, whether it’s Friends Reunited or Facebook, without users and continuous support it cannot last long or sustain a large following. Social networks are about the ability to connect with all your friends and find old or new contacts, there have been many instances of these attempting to take on the giant Facebook but few have come close. Now I am not saying it doesn’t have a place, privacy, security and transparency about how posts are promoted is a great idea and I think it will have a loyal base of followers but it won’t be a Facebook killer. There will always be the association of malware with any social network as it’s a large captive audience with a high degree of trust from “friend” to “friend”.