We need to talk about the elephant in the server room.
The modern internet is built on a simple, predatory bargain: "We give you cool tools for free. You give us your soul."
Facebook, Google, TikTok—they aren't charities. They are surveillance engines. They track your eyes, your clicks, your voice, and your location to build a "Digital Voodoo Doll" of you. Then they sell access to that doll to the highest bidder.
When we started building Winkr, we had a choice. We could follow that path. It’s profitable. It’s easy. Investors love it.
We said no.
The "Free" Trap
People often ask: "If Winkr is free, how do you make money?"
The cynical answer is usually: "If you aren't paying, you are the product."
But that is a false dichotomy. Wikipedia is free. Signal is free. Linux is free.
We chose a different model: The Community Support Model.
We offer premium features (like "Winkr Plus") for users who want to support the mission. But we do NOT sell your data. We don't even have your data.
The Architecture of Silence
We didn't just write a "Privacy Policy" that nobody reads. We baked privacy into the code.
- No Persistent Accounts: You don't need an email to use Winkr. You are a ghost.
- P2P Video: Your video stream goes from your browser to your partner's browser. It skips our servers entirely.
- Ephemeral Logs: Our server logs are wiped every 24 hours. Even if we get hacked, the vault is empty.
This is what we call "Data Minimalism." We collect the absolute minimum amount of information required to connect two IPs, and then we destroy it immediately.
Why We Delete Everything
History teaches us that data is a liability.
Databases get leaked. Governments demand access. Rogue employees snoop.
The only way to keep data 100% safe is to not have it.
We cannot leak what we do not store.
We cannot sell what we do not own.
Our Promise to You
We promise to never sell your face to facial recognition companies.
We promise to never sell your chat logs to sentiment analysis firms.
We promise to treat you like a human being, not a data point.
Privacy isn't a feature. It’s a human right. And on Winkr, it’s the law.