A Bengaluru based startup, ThingMZing Labs, has recently launched a one-of-a-kind social media app, Zing. Zing is the first microblogging and social media platform in India that focusses on data security and online privacy.
The rise of social media brought with it a host of new threats to user data. The biggest threat is social media companies sharing information with third parties. This means that the personal information that users share on Facebook or Instagram isn’t just being used for serving ads but can be sold to other companies that want to use it for their own purposes. Others include Algorithm based content that leads to thought manipulation, presence of bots and troll farms, doxing and others. Following the paradigm shift in user’s focus on privacy, random account suspensions on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Zing was created.
According to Pradeep Gururani, Founder and CEO, Zing, “Social media has become an integral part of many people’s daily lives. As we continue to share more and more information about ourselves on these platforms, concerns about privacy have become increasingly prevalent. One of the major concerns about privacy in social media is the potential for personal information to be mishandled or misused by the companies that operate these platforms. Many social media companies collect vast amounts of data about their users, including their personal information, browsing habits, and even their location.
For the past several years, I’ve been thinking about how we could change this process. I then decided to build a new social media platform from ground up. A social media platform which has Privacy built into its core values. At Zing we neither ask nor capture any personal information about our user. Every feature that we build, first question is, “Are we taking care of user’s privacy?” Every third party integration we do, we carefully analyze the implications on user’s privacy. At present we have a well curated social media platform which does not harness user’s personal information for its own gain.”
Talking about the unique features of Zing, it does not access any personal information from the user’s phone, prioritizing user’s privacy and data safety. The user behavior is not tracked, no AI based feed. The users decide what they see. The feed is served in chronological order.
