Marketing is ever present. From the snake oil salesman who tricks people into buying useless stuff to the grand events hosted by the marketing mogul Apple to small companies trying to get some attention. One thing is certain: our attention is heavily fought over.
But with all the negative examples we experience, how can a company approach the topic marketing ethically? Dive into today's talk with David and Raphael who discuss Safing's approach to the topic and how we analyze the marketing funnel. How does a person move from never having heard of Safing to becoming a Portmaster user or even a paying customer?
Which privacy service deserves your trust? Often you will hear things like good security or if the code is open source. But as always, it has a lot to do with money. Who pays in the end?
In today's episode we welcome no other than TheHatedOne (Privacy YouTuber), who joins us to discuss business models.
Why are they important? How can a service be financially sustainable? And out of Signal and GrapheneOS, which one does a great job while the other is set up in a questionable manner to say the least.
We all long for Freedom. And privacy advocates say that Freedom is only possible with privacy. But could Freedom be achieved without it? That is exactly what today's guest Ben Malisow is claiming: Get rid of privacy altogether and humanity will be liberated.
Join today's episode where Raphael and Ben have a wonderful debate on one of the most pressing issues of our time.
The Portmaster privacy app is one giant of a machine. But up until recently, most of its powers were not really usable. The features were either invisible or hidden behind a clunky old User Interface.
That is where Patrick comes along, who took charge of completely modernizing the Portmaster's User Interface. There is a lot to unravel here as Patrick gives us a good look at how it was to join Safing, how he felt when receiving this monumental task and how it was to work alongside Luke, the designer.
Accepting payments as a privacy company is not as straightforward as it might seem. Instead of ignoring privacy issues as most companies do, we feel the best way to protect any user data is to not collect it in the first place. On the other hand we have legal requirements we need to fulfill. Finding the best solution requires a lot of thought. Additionally, being a privacy company means that many payment vendors are not too keen to provide us with their services. Raphael and David sit down and have an extensive talk about all of these aspects.
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingRaphael takes us through another solo episode and updates us on Safing's most recent developments. How did the AMA event go? What is the state of the SPN and the account page? What bug is currently haunting the Portmaster? And what are the next payment methods we are working on?
Do you want to know more about how we feel about privacy? Ask us further questions on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingThis episode is a special one because this time only Raphael sat down to talk about what is happening in the company. He talks about the current state of the SPN and gives insight into our thought process during the release. He also gives a sneak peak of the talk he prepared for the Austrian Privacy Week.
Do you want to know more about how we feel about privacy? Ask us further questions on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingDaniel and David sit down to have a lengthy talk on DNS resolvers: How does DNS resolving actually work? What about encrypted DNS? Why can the Internet Service Provider still track you even when encrypting your DNS? What are the differences between DNS over TLS and DNS over HTTPS? How do Browsers/VPN/the Portmaster resolve your DNS? Enjoy this tech-heavy episode!
Do you like these technical talks? Do you want more of them? Let us know on:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingWhat is the problem with public deadlines and how do they impact creativity & performance? How did Luke approach the massive task of completely re-desiging Safing? What tools come into play and where do we currently stand?
David and Luke get together to chat about these questions, giving plenty of insight behind-the-scenes. Enjoy!
Give Luke the criticism he wished for on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingWith the recent release of our payment server Raphael and David sit down to talk about cash payments, one of the methods available right from the start. Arguably the most private payment method out there, it still has its drawbacks. What are they? And what can you do to mitigate risks?
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingHow does the it feel after researching and developing a product for more than three years when it finally sees the light of day? Daniel shares his feelings in regards to the recent Portmaster launch, we question whether or not we should have shipped earlier and we talk about the next steps in this new era. Have a wonderful week!
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingThis weeks I had the chance to have a chat with Tabitha who joined our team in January 2020. Working in the backoffice she is involved in a wide range of fields. From accounting, to writing reports to audio editing and helping out in content production.
Get to know how the onboarding process was for her and what it was like to be the first female employee of Safing. We also talk about her privacy journey and the importance of meta-data.
Have a good one, enjoy!
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingLooking back, we can clearly see the fruits of our collaboration with Martin. He helped us give weight to areas that we, as new founders, would easily have overlooked otherwise. From professionalism to financial longevity or even redefining our roles as founders: we went from being equals to making Raphael 'the boss' (with few exceptions). Dive into the importance of structures and find out why it is good for founders to be unequal in everyday work-life.
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingWe're happy to be back publishing podcasts. Expect bi-weekly episodes for now. And we're still working on improving the audio. Step by step :)
Anyway, recently we moved to a new office so this was a great moment to look back at our origin story. From our "garage story", working tightly together at Daniel's place to how we then moved to our first and then to our current office. We also talked about meeting the mayor of Baden.
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingRaphael got to take over the podcast this time, and had a talk with Daniel exploring the differences between the SPN, VPN and Tor. We also talk about some future features that are going to be implemented into the SPN.
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingDisclaimer: I'm not at my best today since been feeling a bit sick. I focused on bringing the episode out, so sorry for this weeks poor quality.
This week Daniel and David talk about the code review of the SPN cryptography module. The auditor is Cure53 who already has reviewed big players in the scene, such as Bitwarden, Mullvad or OpenPGP. First hints of the result are also included. Enjoy the listen.
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingAfter a failed recording last week, we're happy to share the progress on our dawning Kickstarter. With only 12 days to go we are in the middle of wrapping things up. Next to telling what we have accomplished so far Raphael and David also discuss why the campaign was rescheduled, what benefits the different supporters will receive and what still needs to be done. Enjoy the listen!
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingThis week we're excited to announce our sponsorship for PrivacyTools. Their website has personally helped all three of us founders, and it would not surprise me if you regularly visit their site too. Raphi and I discuss how it came about to get together with the PrivacyTools team and why we decided to become one of their sponsors. We then also talk about the current state of the privacy community. Enjoy the listen! (sorry for the audio this week, being back in Austria for the week, so the setup was unusual)
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingAfter last weeks blog post talking about our next 5 steps, Daniel and David get together to talk about the long term dreams of Safing. What do we hope to achieve the next 5 years and beyond that? Starting with the SPN and its tight integration to the application firewall: From deciding the exit country on a per app/domain basis to enabling your computer to make use of two internet connections at once. All while still keeping it simple so everyday users can enjoy privacy. And Daniel even outlines his dreams about the times after we achieved all of those steps. Enjoy the listen.
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safingThis week is especially exciting as we welcome our designer Luke to the podcast. This is the story about how Luke got this position: starting from how he found out about the job via The Hated One, our first video call all the way to the vital last interview day where it was only between him and another candidate (and about pizza). It's a great story, and even greater to have him on the team! He has already re-shaped our designs from the ground up. Enjoy the listen!
What could we do better? Let us know how we can improve our podcast on reddit:
- r/safing: https://reddit.com/r/safing
