The TrueNews approach to privacy

Let’s talk Privacy – something that’s lacking on most technology platforms and company websites.

For TrueNews, we MUST protect our members’ privacy, because TrueNews allows you to interact and express your opinion on issues that are important to you, and for which others may agree or disagree.

On TrueNews, you’re able to comment, vote, reward, and take polls surrounding Stories…and therein lies the risk. Expressing your opinion in the world we live in today can be risky.

We all know the stories about people being stalked on social media, and the death threats, not to mention real physical harm that people have experienced.

The goal of TrueNews is to protect your identity when you search, read, comment, vote and reward…so you establish an alias to represent yourself on TrueNews. 

How it works

When you sign up for TrueNews, you are creating an account on the MeUs identity Guard, a platform created with security first (that’s rare), and you get only one account for life, followed by the creation of an alias for use in TrueNews.

The MeUs platform ensures that the relationships you might establish, between your real identity and TrueNews, TruePolls or any third-party relationships with companies or individuals that you approve are kept completely separate, with just one secret number linking them in a protected offline (air-gapped) system.

This is all done in a simple registration process, and we do ask you for several pieces of info to verify that you’re a real person. And yes, you will receive ongoing follow-ups to prove you’re a real person (more on this in a separate blog).

TrueNews is not aware of your real identity

Sometimes, users may want to post a comment under their real name (like a quote from a politician, or something you feel really strongly about and want your real name attached to). This is also protected and doesn’t expose anything else about you. That comment is not linked to your alias, it’s linked to a separate relationship between your real identity and TrueNews.

The same is true if you sign up as a News Item Creator (a citizen or professional journalist). You can use your alias to publish News Items or sign your real name to them. 

Note: If you’re a whistleblower (we are strong supporters), you should use our totally anonymous method of submitting News Items, so that there’s no linkage whatsoever to your alias or real identity (and a court order could not expose you).

But privacy is a two-way street, you have to protect your identity just like TrueNews and MeUs do. We will never reveal your real identity, except under court order of course. 

We’re a big proponent of personal responsibility, something lacking in our world. In this context, that means you have to protect your alias and real identity, by being careful what you say in comments. If you say things that can be linked back to you, you risk the exposure of your alias. With MeUs, you only get one account for life, and it’s the same thing for TrueNews, one alias for life, so it’s important to protect it by considering what you’re saying before posting.

When you share a News Item (Story, Fact, Evidence) through your social media, this is done without reference to your alias as well, so there’s no risk in exposing your alias there (unless you say something in the social media post that mimics what you commented in TrueNews, etc.).

And in the context of reading about the news, there really should be no reason to share your alias, so we recommend that you don’t tell anyone what your TrueNews alias is.

Through some best practice technology and safety-first principle, TrueNews (and MeUs) brings a solid privacy capability, so that all our members can be free to express themselves fully in a safe manner.