S3E7: 'Personal CRM: Embracing Digital Minimalism & Privacy Empowerment' with Chris Zeunstrom (Yorba)
Mar 19, 2024
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Chris Zeunstrom, CEO of Ruca and Yorba, discusses building a privacy-first company, the digital minimalist movement, and decentralized identity/storage. Yorba's features, collaboration with Consumer Reports, and the importance of decentralized solutions in enhancing privacy and security are highlighted. Future plans for Yorba's data management tools are also teased.
Yorba prioritizes privacy by decentralizing personal data to enhance security.
Chris emphasizes digital minimalism to reduce information saturation and improve user control.
Deep dives
The Power of Provado's Privacy Code Scanning Solution
Provado offers a privacy code scanning solution that integrates privacy compliance into the product development lifecycle, providing visibility into sensitive flows and assisting in resolving privacy vulnerabilities. Leveraging Provado's data flows, dynamic data mapping, privacy assessment automation, and real-time privacy issue visibility promotes proactive privacy management.
Decentralized Storage Pods and Enhanced Privacy with Yorba
Yorba's objective is to implement a personal profile system stored in decentralized storage pods across the internet. This approach aims to enhance security by dispersing information, making it challenging for potential breaches. Yorba strives to simplify online existence for users by streamlining their digital footprint and supporting decluttering processes.
Chris Zunstrom: Entrepreneurship and Privacy-Focused Innovations
Chris Zunstrom, an entrepreneur and owner of Crispy Strom Industries, Inc., discusses his journey founding RUKA, a design cooperative, and YORBA, a privacy-first company. Through Yorba, he aims to embed privacy by design, implement a digital minimalist strategy for data minimization, enable decentralized identity, and utilize Consumer Reports’ data rights protocol for managing personal data permissions.
Yorba's Embrace of Digital Minimalism and Privacy Design
Yorba aligns with the digital minimalism movement by prioritizing a decluttered digital experience for users. By leveraging lean data practices and reducing information saturation, Yorba aims to enhance user control over personal data while promoting privacy and security. The platform emphasizes simplification of online interactions and offers tools to streamline data management and deletion processes.
This week's episode, I chat with Chris Zeunstrom, the Founder and CEO of Ruca and Yorba. Ruca is a global design cooperative and founder support network, while Yorba is a reverse CRM that aims to reduce your digital footprint and keep your personal information safe. Through his businesses, Chris focuses on solving common problems and creating innovative products. In our conversation, we talk about building a privacy-first company, the digital minimalist movement, and the future of decentralized identity and storage.
Chris shares his journey as a privacy-focused entrepreneur and his mission to prioritize privacy and decentralization in managing personal data. He also explains the digital minimalist movement and why its teachings reach beyond the industry. Chris touches on Yorba's collaboration with Consumer Reports to implement Permission Slip and creating a Data Rights Protocol ecosystem that automates data deletion for consumers. Chris also emphasizes the benefits of decentralized identity and storage solutions in improving personal privacy and security. Finally, he gives you a sneak peek at what's next in store for Yorba.
Topics Covered:
How Yorba was designed as a privacy-1st consumer CRM platform; the problems that Yorba solves; and key product functionality & privacy features
Why Chris decided to bring a consumer product to market for privacy rather than a B2B product
Why Chris incorporated Yorba as a 'Public Benefit Corporation' (PBC) and sought B Corp status
Exploring 'Digital Minimalism'
How Yorba's is working with Consumer Reports to advance the CR Data Rights Protocol, leveraging 'Permission Slip' - an authorized agent for consumers to submit data deletion requests
The architectural design decisions behind Yorba’s personal CRM system
The benefits to using Matomo Analytics or Fathom Analytics for greater privacy vs. using Google Analytics
The privacy benefits to deploying 'Decentralized Identity' & 'Decentralized Storage' architectures
Chris' vision for the next stage of the Internet; and, the future of Yorba