A path to online privacy

In the latest furore about online security, Twitter is suing the US government. The backstory is that some tech companies signed up to a deal where they would disclose the amount of data requests they get from spy agencies, but only in broad numbers, which does not tell users a whole lot about how much they are being watched.

Twitter was not part of the deal, because it wants to be able to disclose all the requests it gets so people have the full picture. In a statement it talks about the restrictions being a violation of the First Amendment.

Smaller players in the social media game were not really part of this deal, but some say that privacy is paramount to the whole experience. Social network Path is doing things in a different, smaller and – it claims – much more private way.

While Facebook has 829 million daily active users, Path only had 1.5 million at the start of the year. But comparative growth in 2014 has been good, and it is now up to five million daily active users, from a total base of around 25 million global users.

To discuss online privacy in the social media world, we speak to Dave Morin, a former manager at Facebook, who is the co-founder and CEO of Path.