Born Private and Uncommon offer parents a new way to digitally protect children from birth

With millions of users boycotting Chat GPT in the past week over privacy concerns, trust in big tech has never been lower.

A new survey* from Proton Mail has revealed that when it comes to parents, just 14% trust major tech companies with their child’s data, with nearly a third already discovering apps or websites that have over-collected information on their children in the past 12 months alone.

In response to the findings, Proton Mail has partnered with Uncommon Creative Studio to launch an industry-first initiative, Born Private, an email reservation programme which protects children’s digital identities from birth. For just $1, families can reserve an encrypted email account for their newborns, ensuring they begin their digital lives with a clean slate, and these accounts remain sealed and protected for up to 15 years, reserving a private, ad-free, encrypted space for the child when they’re ready to start engaging with the internet.

Born Private has been launched with a chilling film serving as a stark reminder of the potential exposure to data breaches from the moment we’re born.

Julie Matheney, ECD at Uncommon Creative Studio, says: "The deterioration of privacy is one of the biggest issues of our time. Everyday our data is trafficked, stolen and shared, and it's happening even earlier than we realise. We knew that creating an ad to drive awareness wasn't enough; we needed to go one step further, by launching an industry-first program that would make privacy possible from day one."

Once activated, the address serves as the child’s permanent, secure identity for everything from school portals to gaming accounts, ensuring their digital life begins — when they’re ready — without a pre-existing trail of data logs and behavioral profiling.