Leading The Way In Securing Digital Privacy

Since the transformation of the federally controlled ARPAnet into the global world wide web in the early 1990s, the Internet has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. Billions of people now rely upon the net for shopping, banking, working remotely, and electronic communication services which include email, texting, and telephoning. Perhaps not surprisingly, even as millions of consumers began “logging on” in the mid 1980s via early online connectivity services such as CompuServe, AOL, PSINet, Prodigy, etc., digital privacy concerns emerged immediately.

In fact, even before the web exploded in popularity, operators of privately owned dialup bulletin board systems (BBSs) often had to fix security vulnerabilities in response to hacks which could expose user data. Fast forward to our always-on, connected world in which not having a digital footprint is nothing short of a liability in seeking employment, working from home, securing a mortgage, paying taxes, and seeking services of almost every description. It’s hard to argue that a digital identity is a requisite to function in our post-dot com society.

Almost 30 years and 4.95 billion users later, however, the internet does remarkably little to protect personal information.

Despite the passage of electronic privacy laws in the U.S. and overseas, specifically in the EU, a perfect storm of circumstances have made digital privacy and information security more elusive than ever. There’s plenty of blame to go around but you can start with a lack of political will to give teeth to federal legislation, the exponential rise in cybercrime, and the frightening reality of increasingly sophisticated hackers.

Not surprisingly, most Americans now believe their data is less secure than ever. In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2019, 81% of the public felt that potential risks incurred by allowing companies to get their data outweigh the benefits, 79% were “concerned” about the way their data is being used by businesses and 64% worried about the government’s use of their information. Clearly, a large percentage of Americans are fed up and don’t expect the situation to improve anytime soon.

And it’s not just nefarious cyber criminals that online users need to be worried about. In one pending lawsuit consumer rights advocates are challenging the way that Amazon is using voice biometrics from its customers gathered by Alexa and other “personal assistant” devices.

Despite Amazon’s claims that their use of such data is legal and benign, others in the tech industry and investors side with concerned citizens and are backing a new effort to solve the issue once and for all.

“The plain fact is data privacy should no longer be controlled by third parties and large entities,” says MIT graduate, former Google engineer, and Microsoft product manager Michael Amoako. “It makes a lot more sense for everyone to have the power to choose who has access to their data, and how it’s used, verified, and protected.” Unlike others who share his understandably consumer-friendly position but are helpless to affect change, Amoako is part of a team making these noble sentiments a viable choice for consumers and businesses.

For the past year, Amoako has served as the chief of staff and head of developer relations, at Sonr Inc., a startup based in New York City. The company’s founders say their mission is nothing less than ensuring all of us can take control of our information with a user-owned conduit based on privacy ground rules dictated by the general public.

Although such an ambition may seem quixotic and perhaps even quaint in our age of data breaches, ransomware, and cyberattacks, Sonr’s forward-looking idea has already attracted intense interest from investors.

“We’re thrilled to invest in Sonr so for the first time everyone can finally control and transmit their data seamlessly, giving them true ownership,” says Chris Harper of Torch Capital. “The Sonr team is ahead of the curve in developing intuitive frontend consumer experiences and the next generation of consumer-facing decentralized apps designed for ensuring digital privacy.”

In explaining how the Sonr solution works, Sonr CEO and co-founder Prad Nukala describes the technology as a user-owned interoperable network which uses an open source blockchain protocol to enable fully secure, peer-to-peer communication.

“It may sound complicated but to the user it’s just a simple personal dashboard for using services such as texting, email and surfing the web with total privacy and security. As for developers and our investors, their interests are that our technology is future-proof and the most cutting-edge security currently offered on the market.”

Nukala says that the support of prominent venture capitalists and the global developer community is due to Sonr’s opportune timing.

“The industry is currently making strides toward adopting the idea of a full user-owned internet, and our model squares with that perfectly,” he says, pointing out that the Sonr project had the fifth most contributions on GitHub, the open source website for developers last year.

Nukala adds that developing the Sonr system isn’t just a professional goal, it’s also a personal passion project for the growing team of tech experts within the company.

“We’re a team of engineers at heart. We focus intensely on developing easy-to-use frontend packages. Our solution bridges a chasm between user-owned digital applications that are only suitable for early adopters and technology enthusiasts and a broader change of the Internet infrastructure that will benefit everyone.”

Another financial backer, Yida Gao of Shima Capital concurs.

“Most blockchain platforms require web3 knowledge that puts a roadblock on decentralized application growth,” he says. “Sonr jumps this hurdle by making their solution drop dead easy for the user and by catering to web2 developers looking to build in web3 with developer tools that they are used to and can get behind.”