Here's A Secret: We Need Anonymous Social Networks

#sxsw #Secret

When no one knows who you are, you can finally be yourself. That's the promise of Secret, a fast-growing anonymous sharing app. In this discussion, Secret's co-founder David Byttow and TechCrunch's Josh Constine will explore why people emotionally resonate with apps that remove traditional concepts of identity. Will anonymity become a permanent fixture of social networking or is it just a fad? Does anonymity promote cyberbullying that could lead to depression or suicide? Why do we crave approval in apps like Secret if it doesn't raise our social status? How can anonymous free expression survive in a troll-filled world?

Presenters

David Byttow

Co-Founder

Secret

David Byttow is the CEO and co-founder of Secret, a new social communication platform that allows you to share secretly with friends. He’s a generalist software engineer with broad and deep experience in leading products across many industries, including social, payments, and gaming. David thrives when solving tough problems and building products, frameworks and platforms that have large-scale impact and are used by millions of people.

Prior to Secret, David was the Director of Infrastructure and the Wallet product lead at Square where he helped design products like Square Cash. He has also worked at Google where he helped build products like Google Wave and Google+.

David has experience with dozens of languages and is widely regarded as an expert of Java, C++, JavaScript, and Python and designing large-scale, distributed systems.

David currently lives, builds, plays and writes in the hallowed South Park district of San Francisco.

Josh Constine

Writer

TechCrunch

Josh writes tech news and opinion for TechCrunch. He is an experienced public speaker, having moderated fireside chats and panels at over a dozen conferences including SXSW and TechCrunch Disrupt. He specializes in critical analysis of social and communication technologies. His goal is to bring readers deep insight into the ramifications of breaking news from startups and tech giants alike. His beats include Facebook, Google, social networks, advertising, music, dating, and social good. He loves writing in-depth launch profiles of new startups.

Constine's past on-stage interviews include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, and a hilarious panel with founders of Rap Genius.

Prior to TechCrunch, Constine designed a Stanford University Master’s program in Cybersociology to study how humans interact through technology. He researched privacy, anonymity, meme popularity cycles, and how tech is changing interpersonal relationships. He currently lives and plays in the Mission district of San Francisco.