Social media has revolutionised communications, but all the main players demand a payback in data collection and ad exposure. Malmö, Sweden-based Ind.ie – a pro-privacy, pro-democracy social enterprise – after exploring an independent phone network and a file-syncing project, is now focusing its efforts on Heartbeat.

A spyware-free social network client for Mac, Heartbeat holds out this promise to future users: “You are not the product being sold.” Rejecting venture capital the Indie team is now accepting donations, following their successful crowdfunding campaign in 2014, to take the app to a public ‘beta‘ stage. The platforms source code will be released on the same date, facilitating customisability and security and keeping costs low for users. Heartbeat’s business plan includes providing domain hosting independent websites and encrypted backups of data to help cover operating costs.

Chris has been writing on travel, tech, sex, food, art and books for nearly two decades. He co-founded street paper Hecho en Buenos Aires, writes regularly for the Guardian and Telegraph newspapers, and is now writing a thriller set in Andalusia.