‘Advertising companies are the biggest threat to privacy’

Jon Callas, co-founder of Blackphone maker Silent Circle, believes ad companies pose a greater threat to privacy than governments. Also, companies that only bet on advertisements would not be prepared for the future.

Callas, who was also involved in founding a company that focused on pgp encryption software, said in an interview with ZDNet that the battle over adblockers is far from over. Users are increasingly feeling the need to protect themselves against data collection by companies.

According to Callas, these possess much more data about citizens than governments. For example, about surfing and searching behavior on the internet. This data is valuable for serving ads, and companies like Google and Facebook have built their businesses around it, according to Callas.

However, there would also be a separation between the large technology companies. For example, Apple and Microsoft would make their money with products, instead of advertisements. They only use the data collected by these companies to improve their products, ZDNet writes. Google and Facebook would actually sell this data to third parties. Callas adds that once ad blockers become more widespread, these companies will see their revenues plummet. Companies should focus on protecting the privacy of their users in order to have a future perspective.