The Cocoon Blog
The Internet as it should be: private, secure and virus free

While we’ve been focused on developing and testing Cocoon, we haven’t wanted to overwhelm our systems by promoting the service until we are ready. Instead, we’ve let word-of-mouth provide the steady increase in the beta users we’ve needed to test the systems and provide feedback.

We recently found out how powerful just a bit of exposure can be – and learned a lot from it as well. While taking a day off, I got an early morning call saying we’d just had a spike in sign-ups, doubling in a couple hours what we normally get each day. I asked to be kept informed if this continued, and then got a steady stream of calls throughout the day as the sign-ups poured in.

We eventually learned the spike in sign-ups was due to a blogger in a French Canadian news site writing about Cocoon. Not only did the spike in sign-ups continue on for several days, but even after the initial exposure wore off we’ve continued to see an increase as these new users spread the word.

Why trust Cocoon?
What was also interesting is what people had to say in the comments of the blog post. The most common theme was people wondering why they should believe that Cocoon won’t sell their data like everyone else. The simple answer is because our business model depends on protecting our customer’s privacy. Instead of selling customer information to advertisers, we are looking at charging users a fair fee to keep their information private and secure. There are several different ways we can do this, and we would love any comments you have regarding the idea of paying for a privacy service and how we might structure it. Whatever we end up with, we will never sell customer information to anyone. As of now, we are totally free, so use Cocoon with confidence knowing our users’ privacy will never be for sale. And please, let us know what you think about any aspect of the service. (If you’d like to provide feedback off-line from the blog, you can email me directly via dkw(at)vworldc.com).

About two months ago, we launched the Cocoon service in what could be called its alpha phase. We invited only 20 users to test what it would be like to browse the web privately and securely. Would browsing be slowed down? Would people understand the interface? How would people like the features we were introducing?

The feedback was terrific. We learned much about the controls and features – and most importantly how to communicate these features to users. People loved the idea of not giving up their identity and IP address, but they wondered how to be sure it was really working? This was answered by a quick visit to www.whatsmyip.org showing the IP address of Cocoon servers as the browsing source. Demonstrating the safety of Cocoon browsing is more difficult. Sure you could go to a malware laden site and browse away unscathed, but to be really sure you’d then have to go back without Cocoon and end up infected, and who wants to do that? (You don’t want to crash the car to prove the airbags work.) We’re still working on a way to demonstrate Cocoon anti-malware protection so people really get it.

Even as testing was going on, we knew that Cocoon browsing would soon be taking another form. Yes, the Cocoon browser has some great features, but what about people that don’t want to switch from their current browser of choice? Our engineering team was already at work on a plug-in offering all the features, security and privacy of the Cocoon service but accessed using leading browsers: Firefox, IE, and Safari.

This meant the development on the Cocoon browser would stop, while the focus was full speed ahead on a plug-in. While it is hard to take a step sideways in development, we know the end result will be a better solution for our users.

So where are we now? We have a functioning Firefox plug-in that allows us to browse safely and privately through Cocoon servers. We are now adding features that we tested with our alpha browser — anonymous email addresses and enhanced favorites and history — along with new features for password and profile management.

It’s difficult to wait. We want to introduce our new way of using the web now and hear what users have to say. But, each day we get a bit closer to a full beta launch. Go to www.GetCoccon.com if you’d like to be notified when the plug-in becomes available. Until then, surf with care.

Why should your privacy online be important to you? As I talked about here, companies are happy to sell history of your online activities, but does that matter? After all, if you’re not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide, right?

Maybe we have to know what companies are doing with our information to be concerned about it. For instance, imagine your online activities affecting your credit? It’s true, companies are using what you talk about and who your friends are on facebook to influence what kind of credit risk they think you are.

Even when we think we are taking steps to stay private does it really work? If it’s not in the company’s best interest for them to allow you to go private, why would they? This article appears to show that “Google’s tool bar continues to track browsing even after users choose disable”

The truth is we know very little about how our online activity is being used now and there is no way to even guess how it will be used in the future.

Cocoon is designed to protect your privacy. It is in our best interest that your information and online history remains yours alone. (Plus we’ll help keep you free from malware and viruses, but more on that later. . .)  Stay tuned to this blog and our tweets @DavidCocoonApp for more news and future availability.

Ever wonder what your online privacy is worth to companies like Yahoo? It seems it’s about $40 according to the price list leaked to the whistleblower site Cryptome as described in Wired’s Threat Level blog.

What level of privacy should you expect when using the World Wide Web? Not very much. What sites you visit, what you search for and what email you send and receive is fair game for both business and government. We literally pay for new technologies with our privacy as companies sell our online habits and histories. Think that Twitter and Facebook don’t have a revenue plan? Think again.

However there are groups that are working to improve things.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a suit to find out how government agencies are using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook for investigations, data-collection, and surveillance. Not to stop the agencies, just to find out what they are doing.

The ACLU of CA are promoting a dotRights campaign to demand action from Congress and the Obama Administration to augment privacy oversight against expanding government powers over the data collection tools of new technologies.

Here at Cocoon we believe your data is yours, and not ours.  We understand that everyone has the right to privacy, whether it is online or off.  Your data should not be freely collected and sold by businesses.  If a government agency wants your data, then a judge should be convinced to approve a warrant for it to be obtained, just as it says in the Fourth Amendment.

The online world offers a wealth of information and services, but you shouldn’t have to pay for them with your privacy. Cocoon will soon offer an affordable way so you won’t have to.

Even without wearing my tinfoil hat and ducking the black helicopters, online privacy does matter to me. As someone who lives with a roommate and shares office space, do I really want just anyone who walks up to my computer to hit the back button and see where I’ve just been?

It’s most likely innocent, but do I want a co-worker to know I’m considering a new job? Or a roommate to know I might think about moving from Maine? (After all I think this every winter – why get her nervous this year?)

It’s not that I’m trying to “hide something,” but shouldn’t I decide what to share? What I search for, look at, and think about is my business.

Sure, I could clear history after the fact, or turn on private browsing up front, but then I lose my record of places I’ve been and might want to return to. I want the best of both worlds. Privacy with rich history. Seems reasonable doesn’t it?

CocoonApp will go live before the end of October! It will be a limited availability launch as we ramp up.  If you want to get on the list, stay tuned for our invitation site link to be posted here.

Meanwhile, ongoing testing of the rapid development is going great. Sure we’re learning and changing things, but that’s the point. Usability is improving daily, and feedback shows people want to browse with privacy effortlessly, while avoiding spyware, malware, and viruses. What’s fun is to see people recognize how complacent we’ve all been with the status quo. They now expect browsing should be private and virus-free. Imagine that . . . coming by the end of October.

In two hours I’ll find out when CocoonApp launches its limited beta trials. It’s hard to imagine and impossible to explain how much needs to get done for this to happen.

What is CocoonApp? Imagine an application that would let you browse the web with nothing touching your hard drive. No malware or spyware to ever bog down your machine again, privacy from websites that want to spam you, or anyone you share your computer with. Why? Because with CocoonApp, you’re not browsing the net on your computer, you’re doing it on our servers. We just show it to you on your computer. You interact with the web the same way, but with the peace of mind of knowing you are protected. Hence one of the tag lines we’ve considered: “Peace of mind and the internet together at last”. Well, when we go live it will be “at last”… I’ll let you know.