In December 2023, Moxie Marlinspike, co-founder of the encrypted messaging platform Signal, announced Confer. This cutting-edge artificial intelligence service is designed with user privacy as the top priority and it shows. Confer aims to provide a user experience similar to consumer chat offerings such as ChatGPT or Claude. Simultaneously, it focuses on reducing data collection to the greatest extent possible.
Confer’s backend architecture is carefully structured to avoid the kind of data harvesting that has become standard practice for many AI-powered solutions. This approach is consistent with the open-source rigor that has made Signal such a proven platform for secure communication. Marlinspike’s vision is to create an experience that lets users engage with AI technology while protecting their private data.
The service includes a free tier, allowing users to send up to 20 messages per day for free. Users can have five chats simultaneously active. For anyone looking for even more robust features, Confer offers a premium subscription plan that costs $35 per month. Paid users will have unlimited access to the platform. They’ll have the advantage of more sophisticated AI models and customized experiences tailored specifically to them.
Confer’s product development puts privacy first. Especially in an era where most chat interfaces—including ChatGPT—are gathering massive troves of user data, we provide a privacy-friendly, direct-to-API, and more safe alternative. Security engineer Marlinspike observed the dangers of this data collection saying,
“Chat interfaces like ChatGPT know more about people than any other technology before. When you combine that with advertising, it’s like someone paying your therapist to convince you to buy something.”
Confer’s design, function, and flexibility are specifically designed to help reverse these trends by encouraging a more safe and productive environment for user engagement.
Confer places a premium on privacy and user control. This ambitious focus makes it one of the most important players in the development of public sector AI services. As Marlinspike summed it up, technology should do more than empower users; it should protect their privacy. He described Confer as,
“It’s a form of technology that actively invites confession.”
This commitment to user privacy may resonate strongly with those increasingly concerned about how their data is handled in the digital age.