Social media privacy just got real with Zing

A Bengaluru-based startup, ThingMZing Labs, recently launched a one-of-a-kind social media app, Zing. Zing is India’s first microblogging and social media platform that focuses on data security and online privacy.

The rise of social media has brought with it a host of new threats to user data. The biggest threat is social media companies that share information with third parties. This means that the personal information that users share on Facebook or Instagram is not only used to serve 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 mind manipulation, the presence of bots and troll farms, doxxing, and more. Following the paradigm shift in users’ 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 of 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, privacy concerns are becoming more prevalent. One of the main concerns about privacy on 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 few years, I’ve been thinking about how we could change this process. Then I decided to create a new social media platform from the ground up. A social media platform that has privacy built into its core values. At Zing, we neither request nor collect personal information about our user. Every feature we create, the first question is “Do we care about user privacy?” Every third-party integration we do, we carefully analyze the implications on user privacy. We currently have a well-curated social media platform that does not use user’s personal information for its own benefit.

Talking about the unique features of Zing, it does not access personal information from the user’s phone, prioritizing the privacy and safety of the user’s data. User behavior is not tracked, no AI-based feeds. Users decide what to see. Food is served in chronological order.