A new tool for phone addiction / overexposure

Thanks for posting this, @Alexandre. Pozzz looks to be very interesting and addressing of a real need. The execution on kickstarter looks well thought-out, and you have a large team behind the initiative.

What I am most curious about in terms of humane technology is the app you provide. It uses strong elements of gamification in its habit tracker. Many people are very critical of gamification. I don’t share that criticism as long as the gamification is done well and has no deceptive elements in it (“dark patterns” or better deception patterns). I.e. as a game that parents and their children agree to play, and are completely aware of the rules of the game.

Something that is worrying overall is the behavioral targeting that’s described in your privacy policy, and is present on your website (with 10 trackers on it) and - I deduce - in your app as well. I am strongly against this form of advertising. In this case very sensitive information is handed over to the Wild West data markets as input to surveillance capitalism.

I’d urge you to consider take aspects of health and well-being further than the physical / addictive elements related to smartphone use. If doing so, I am convinced you can develop the additional measures you take as USP’s for your company. Consider Ethical Advertising, defend collected PII “with your life” (Privacy USP), and be radically open and transparent on the ways you conduct business. In other words: Strive to become a Sustainable Business.

One thing I currently note, for instance, is that make no guarantees how you protect your customers, or whether - with your ad-model in place - the buyers are even your customers or that once again “they are the product”. It is not clear what your revenue model is, and if e.g. you intend to have In-App Purchases 3rd-party integrations. With the low price point of the pouch this seems something you might well intend to have.

Wishing you all the best developing this to something great, and worthy for the new, modern society where consumers matter again beyond their purchasing power :slight_smile:

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