TeleNav, one of the largest global wireless location-based services providers with more than 17 million subscribers, today announced the immediate availability of MyTies, a mobile-only, private social networking application for the iPhone.
MyTies allows iPhone users to leverage their personal address book and contacts to create multiple private networks by inviting contacts to join and form groups. Users can form separate groups based on whom they want to share information with, for example, a group of co-workers, a group of family members and a group of college friends. This multiple-group structure allows users to easily choose which group or groups can view their messages, photos, videos and location information.
With one third of Americans worried about how much information is available about them online,(1) MyTies recognizes the privacy of direct mobile communication and gives users the power to turn their contacts into an interactive network. New users will be allocated a number of initial free invitations to create private groups and in the future, additional invitations can be obtained through in-app purchasing.
Unlike web-based social networking sites, MyTies will not publically show information to anyone outside of a user’s chosen groups. In addition, MyTies reverses the current practice of selling and sharing users’ personal information with advertisers, and does not connect to third party networks. MyTies reduces unsolicited content through enhanced privacy settings that enable users to specify individual and group preferences.
"MyTies restores privacy and gives users full control of their personal network and the information they choose to share among the various groups of people that make up that network," said Sal Dhanani, TeleNav co-founder and vice president of products. "It creates a direct communication environment between groups of people by enabling users to easily identify the specific group they want to privately share information with."
From moms sharing family photos to colleagues collaborating on a project, MyTies provides users with control when disclosing information by combining an easy group communication system with a high level of privacy. MyTies includes the following features:
* Control Your Information — MyTies users can privately update their status, content or location without those outside of the specific group(s) they select seeing the information. When a user leaves a group all of their posted content is immediately deleted from the app and permanently deleted from TeleNav’s servers within seven days.
* Share Content Without the Web — MyTies leverages the iPhone’s address book and users’ contacts to establish groups, and is not dependent on web-based user profiles.
* Reduce the Clutter — MyTies only sends and receives information from your contacts and does not show postings from irrelevant users, game sites or corporate networks.
* Easy Group Communication — Keep teams, groups and family members updated with in-app group messaging. For example, users can announce and map a meeting via MyTies.
* Location-Based Updates* — MyTies allows users to tag postings on a map with an exact location for added context. Depending on the user’s preferences, MyTies can also show where your closest friends are on a map.
* Get Turn-By-Turn Directions — MyTies provides static turn-by-turn directions to any group member’s location-tagged posting.
* Privacy Protection — MyTies will not sell personal information to advertisers, enable internet-based searching or allow anyone outside of the user-created group to view information.
iPhone users can create a MyTies account by downloading the application and registering a name, phone number and e-mail address. The application uses credits, called "Invites," to allow a user to ask others to join a MyTies group. Each MyTies account comes with 10 free Invites. In the near future, users can purchase additional Invites to add more members to any group for 10 cents each. For a limited time, the first 5,000 users to redeem the promotional code PRIVACY within the application can add an additional 20 Invites for free.
MyTies is available immediately on the Apple App Store for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.0. To download MyTies to the iPhone, please visit the Apple App Store. For more information on MyTies, go to www.myties.com, twitter.com/my_ties, or follow us on Facebook.
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