Nanaimo brothers are all set to launch new social network “Kube”

The developers of Kube, a privacy-oriented social media network, hope to square up their startup costs with a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.

Kube is a Nanaimo-based social media network created as an alternative to Facebook for users who want total control over the privacy of personal data. Where Facebook will sell users’ personal information for profit, Kube allows its users to fully protect and encrypt their data so it can’t be accessed by anyone else, even by Kube. Brothers Michael and Ian Reid, co-founded Red Scotch Software to start developing Kube in 2014.

“A lot of companies, a lot of people, individuals, whether they’re big or small, have a concern, ‘Where is my data actually located?’ because giving it up to a company in the cloud doesn’t sit well with a lot of people,” said Michael Reid, Kube chief marketing officer. “With Kube you have the complete ability and control to use, not just our cloud system. You can use your own cloud system, use your own server – you can attach it into our cloud system. The flexibility from either an individual or business standpoint is much greater than anything we’ve seen with any other company out there.”

Because of the high degree network of privacy, Reid said users will also not have to be concerned with online data censorship. The basic service, complete with a specific amount of data storage, is free to individual users, but annual licensing fees will be charged for premium services, such as deployment of Kube on business servers and extra storage provided by Kube.“For people who actually want to deploy it with their business, we would charge a bit of a per-year licensing fee to have Kube deployed on their own server and, of course, for any storage that they want to use through us,,” Reid said.

Kube is accepting its first batch of beta users and needs to raise a minimum of $50,000 with a kick-starter campaign that runs until noon on March 30. All money will support the infrastructure require to power the network and give backers a chance to join the beta test program. Additional perks include first access to a free Kube account during the beta period complete with five gigabytes of data storage.