A new cloud-based email and social networking site promising better security and less intrusive commercial practices has been launched in Iceland.
Named Vivaldi.net, the service has been set up by Opera Software co-founder Jon von Tetzchner and fellow Opera veteran Tatsuki Tomita as an alternative to other cloud-based email services such as Gmail and Outlook.com.
The service claims to offer ad-free email, something that Gmail in particular has been criticised for in the past, and also incorporates social elements such as blogs, cloud-based photo sharing, forums and live chat.
According to Tomita, the company chose Iceland as lits base both because many of the people behind the project are Icelanders and “for the people of Iceland, the rights to freedom of speech and strong consumer protection laws are most important.”
Iceland is recognised as having some of the strongest privacy and freedom of speech laws in the world and is home to the International Modern Media Institute.
The institute is, according to its website, a “foundation working towards rethinking media regulation, securing free speech and defining new operating principles for the global media in the digital age.”
Tetzchner elaborated on this point in an interview with Reuters, saying: “There has been a lot of focus on safety lately, and it has mainly been focused on governments. But I think this is just as much an issue for the companies in this business.”
"Our initial focus is on the computer geeks because they usually have higher demands for functionality, safety and privacy. But a lot of ordinary people also worry about these things and we will welcome everyone,” he added.
Commenting on the NSA surveillance scandal, which has caused some disquiet with regard to the cloud, Tetzchnersaid he cannot promise to keep the US spy agency away, but claimed that Vivaldi is “without a doubt” the safest option out there, adding “this is one of the reasons we have chosen to do it from Iceland."
-
Why keeping track of AI assistants can be a tricky businessColumn Making the most of AI assistants means understanding what they can do – and what the workforce wants from them
-
Nvidia braces for a $5.5 billion hit as tariffs reach the semiconductor industryNews The chipmaker says its H20 chips need a special license as its share price plummets
-
'Digital hide-and-seek': Workers are wasting hundreds of hours a year sourcing the information they need to carry out their roleNews Knowledge workers globally are wasting a quarter of their working week tracking down information, new research from Atlassian has revealed.
-
Untethered: How CIOs and CISOs are paving the way for the new hybrid workforceWhitepaper Effective techniques to transition from exposed legacy infrastructure to an effective zero trust strategy
-
Unlocking the power of your digital servicesSponsored Businesses have invested significant cash into technology since COVID-19, but are they really getting their money's worth?
-
Delivering fast and secure digital experiences for the modern hybrid workforceWhitepaper A new approach to digital experience monitoring that can monitor the health of all systems
-
Collaboration is the glue that holds your business togetherSPONSORED A combination of productivity tools and cloud telephony can enable the best from your workforce
-
The future of work and the forgotten workforcewhitepaper How to deploy a mobile-first strategy so no one gets left behind
-
The case for an accelerated device refresh cycleWhitepaper Achieving a more cost-effective device lifecycle overall
-
Employees are choosing how they workWhitepaper And with the right secure digital strategy, this could be a great thing for your business: today and far into the future
