Reclaim your online freedom

Better
Ireland (Cork)

There’s a growing unease about the use of behavioural advertising: technologies that track and learn about our online behaviour in order to feed us ever-more targeted ads. As online connectivity reaches into every aspect of our lives, advertisers and corporations are able to collect more of our personal data than ever before.

With this in mind, a privacy tool app called Better has been created by Ind.ie, a small practice of ethical developers based in Cork, Ireland, who are working for social justice in the digital age. Behind it are cyborg rights activist, designer and developer Aral Balkan and designer Laura Kalbag, who is also the author of ‘Accessibility For Everyone’ – and they’re keen to point out that Better is no mere ad blocker. They are critical of most commonly available ad blocking software, suggesting its principles are still based around what Aral terms ‘surveillance capitalism’. 

Rather than blocking ads, Better blocks the code that tracks our activity, giving us back a level of privacy most of us have surrendered to the likes of Google and Facebook.

Why did Aral and Laura build Better? Why do they want to disrupt the mechanisms that make the commercial web profitable and viable? Aral is outspoken on this question. “We’re not sleepwalking into a dystopian future, we’re there today.”

His belief is that our lives and data have become mere tools for driving the profit of online corporations. For our online lives to become fairer, more private, and free from exploitation, he argues strongly that the business models of surveillance capitalism must be disrupted. Better is part of his fight to help us reclaim our online freedom.

AtlasAction: Download the app from the App Store and the Mac App Store. Ind.ie won’t take venture capital. They need your individual support to help them until they reach sustainability.

Better was mapped by Louise Ash in her AtlasChart: 10 rebels with a cause.

Written by

Louise Ash, Event DIrector, The Meaning People (26 September 2018)

Bio

Accidental ethical business geek Louise Ash is the organiser of Meaning conference – a way of sharing stories about what happens when business is brave enough to think differently.

Project leader

Aral Balkan and Laura Kalbag

Support the Atlas

We want the Atlas of the Future media platform and our event to be available to everybody, everywhere for free – always. Fancy helping us spread stories of hope and optimism to create a better tomorrow? For those able, we'd be grateful for any donation.

Creative Commons License

Comments

 

Take me somewhere
Close
Take me somewhere
Close
Data Protection Act: LOPD.
In compliance with Organic Law 15/1999, of 13 of December, on Personal Data Protection, and the development of Rules of Procedure, approved by Royal Decree 1720/2007, of 21 of December, Atlas of the Future subscribers may be required to provide Personal Data, which will be included in a file owned by Democratising The Future Society SL. Such file is duly incorporated in the Spanish Data Protection Agency and protected in compliance with the security measures established in the applicable legislation. Subscribers may exercise, at any time, their rights of access, rectification, cancellation and/or opposition regarding their Personal Data. The subscriber shall notice their will, either under written form addressed to Democratising The Future Society SL, Ref. LOPD, Calabria, 10 6-3 08015 - Barcelona (Spain) and/or by e-mail, clicking here. Also, the subscriber shall communicate Atlas of the Future any modifications of their Personal Data stored, so that the information stored by Atlas of the Future remains at all times updated and error-free.
Close
Get World-changing projects and news in your inbox weekly.