Whenever someone posts a new privacy-focused app or service they have discovered—web-search, chat, social media, etc.—my first question is “How much does it cost?”
If the answer is that it is free, my next question is “How does it make money?” If I can’t find or get an answer to that question, I don’t bother trying out the app.
This stuff costs money to build, host, and maintain, and that money has to be coming from somewhere. Either 1) there is actually some under-the-covers data-mining or ad revenue going on, 2) it is being built and maintained out of the goodness of someone’s heart, or 3) there is some nebulous plan of making it financially sustainable somewhere down the road. My experience has been that ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s going to end badly.
It just seems like we are at the point where, if we want functioning, sustainable software that isn’t horrible, we need to be asking what the plan is for financing it. Otherwise, it is nearly always going to end up heading somewhere we don’t like.