"You are not a product" is the emotive closing line of Ello’s manifesto. This is a dig at the social networks we know and love (or love to hate). Every post we share and every link we follow is recorded by these networks, converted into data and sold to advertisers, essentially making money out of our unassuming clicks under the guise of offering a free service.

Ello is an invite only, ad-free social network created by a small group of artists and designers including Paul Budnitz, Berger & Föhr and Mode Set, for people who hate ads. Admittedly Ello does collect some information related to your visit. However, this information helps to understand how people are using Ello, in order to make Ello better. For example, if Ello creates a feature that everybody is using, they will want to know about that. If Ello has a lot of visitors from France then they might translate their help section into French.

Money is generated by optional donations for various features the creators are planning to roll out soon.

This week Instagram has begun advertising on their user interface, much to the displeasure of an ever-growing community of advert-phobes. It may not irritate everyone that much but it’s still nice to know there is an advert-free alternative to social media out there.