- How is zeldaB different than today’s social
networking sites?
When you post something on a social networking site, in many ways the world is watching.
zeldaB is much more personal. Real talk between you and yours. You have complete
(and easy to use) control of everything that happens on your site.
Social networking sites generate revenue by studying the online activities of their
members and selling this information to advertisers. zeldaB doesn’t allow advertising,
monitor or capture anyone’s information.
Our privacy policy means just that—when you join zeldaB you have, and maintain,
all of your rights to ownership and privacy. You don’t sign away anything. Our privacy
controls are easy to use and can be customized however you like.
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- Why should I be concerned about sites that are
advertising-based?
When a site relies on advertising for revenue, they study your on-line behavior
to create a digital profile of you, your buying habits, beliefs, likes and dislikes.
This profile is used to determine which ads you are most likely to click on. For
example, if you buy a book online about gardening, it’s likely that you’ll suddenly
start seeing ads on other pages for gardening supplies.
zeldaB doesn’t sell advertising. We don’t mine your information or collect any data
about your habits. It’s the ideal solution for people wanting the benefits of an
online community but without sacrificing their safety, security and privacy.
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- How does zeldaB protect my information?
zeldaB puts your privacy first. Anything you post to your site is invisible to everyone
except those that you’ve approved. Plus, it gives you the further ability to designate
specific subsets of friends that are allowed to view specific items.
At zeldaB you are in complete control of all your information. You will never be
surprised to find your content cached on search engines, where it remains forever.
On zeldaB if you decide to delete items or even cancel your account, your information
is completely eliminated; we never store it or use it for our own purposes. On other
sites — where your digital identity is not protected — once the genie is let out
of the bottle there is no putting it back. Photos and other items that you or your
children post remain, even after you think you’ve deleted them.
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- What can I do on zeldaB?
zeldaB is a place for you to play, work, express yourself and keep in contact with
the people you care about. You can:
- Upload pictures, music or video to your custom showcases
- Send messages to your friends privately
- Create your own blog
- Upload and share any type of documents
- Create or join internal communities to discuss a common topic
- Create a private account, available to only those whom you’ve given a unique code
to
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- How can zeldaB help me, as a parent, to better
protect my child?
zeldaB gives parents the power to control who their children communicate with while
in the community. Every invitation to or from a child must be approved by a parent,
who also has the authority to remove a friend from their child's list at any
time.
Any change a child makes to their profile must be approved by a parent before it’s
posted. This is an extra level of security to help protect children from accidentally
sharing information that their parents don’t think they should.
Parents must provide their approval before their children can join one of the many
zeldaB groups. They have the ability to preview group content to make sure it’s
appropriate for each child.
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- Can I remove my profile or my child's profile
from zeldaB?
Yes! If at any time you decide that zeldaB is not for you, zeldaB will completely
purge any and all information you have stored. Unlike other sites, you can rest
assured that all your information is completely erased after you cancel.
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- How do I let my friends know I joined and
invite them to join?
Once you've joined, you can send out invitations to your friends at any time.
Simply go to the Friend page and click "Invite Others." zeldaB will do the rest!
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- Does zeldaB allow third party applications on
its site so they can be downloaded by its members?
No. Some social networking sites have thousands of third party applications that
users can install. Because it’s impossible to police them all, users of these applications
run the risk of inadvertently installing spyware, nuisance adware, viruses or other
malicious programs.
These applications also pose serious risks when it comes to identity theft or even
predatory behavior because they often ask that users share personal information
with strangers. Since zeldaB is a security-focused site, we don’t allow third party
applications.
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- Can someone who's not a zeldaB member come
to the site and do searches?
No. Searches can only be done by validated zeldaB members, while logged in.
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- What's the story and inspiration behind
zeldaB
zeldaB (pronounced “Zelda B.”) was founded by me, Paul Kulas. My brother Dan came
up with the name. “Zelda” is a Bullmastiff, our oldest dog. “B” comes from bees
-- they make honey and do good work.
I started in high technology in 1991. In 1995 I bought a book that’s been in my
brief case ever since — The Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold. The Virtual Community
is about life on the Net at that time. For me, the central part of the story was
the WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), which was founded circa 1985 in San Francisco.
The WELL was a public community where people exchanged private email. What I got
out of the book was exactly what’s happened. That the Internet would evolve from
a free form digital frontier with anonymity -- to where it is now, a commercial
entity where everyone knows if you’re a dog.
I had a personal website in the late 90’s. But I took it offline. Because once I
posted something, even if it was by mistake, the search engines had it forever.
And technology wasn’t there yet -- it was too much trouble to designate which content
was available to whom.
I missed having the site. So around 2005 I decided to make another personal website.
This time, I wanted to design the site so that I could control access to my content
on a file by file basis. And, I was going to design it so that the search engines
couldn’t cache my content.
I found the social networking sites. They weren’t offering anything I’d use, let
my family use, or that I’d recommend to anyone I cared about.
In September of 2007 we went to work on zeldaB. It’s exactly what I wanted—great
for my family and friends, and I’m proud to tell others about it. I believe it’ll
be great for you, your family and friends, too. If so, please tell others.
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