We make apps that won’t turn on you.
The Ethical App Foundation is a non-profit in Pennsylvania. We build apps people actually like using, with no ads, no selling your data, and no owners who can cash out and make them worse.
Apps get worse. We set things up so ours can’t.
Instagram didn’t have ads at first. Neither did Facebook, or Google. Then the growth targets showed up, and every year the apps got a little worse for the people using them. The internet has a ruder word for this (en-sh*t-ification), but our moms read this site, so we’ll just say we’re not doing that. We wrote the rules into the company itself, where nobody can quietly change them later. Including us.
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Nobody can buy us
A non-profit has no owners, so there’s nothing to sell. Our charter goes further: the apps, their code, and your data can never go to a for-profit company, or to any of us. If a tech giant waves a billion dollars at us, the answer is still no. It has to be.
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No shareholders to please
Any money we make goes back into the apps. Nobody gets a bonus for squeezing more ads into your feed.
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Your data isn’t the product
We collect what the app needs to work and nothing else. We don’t sell it, share it, or point ads at it. When you delete something, it’s actually gone.
First up: PhotoJoy.
We started with the thing we wanted for our own families. A private place to share photos with the people closest to you, and nobody else. No ads, no strangers, no influencers. And for grandma, who is not downloading another app, you can mail the photo as a real postcard.
- Free to use, with no ads, ever
- You pick who sees each post
- Postcards and prints keep the lights on
Where things stand
We’re small and we’d rather tell you than make it sound grander than it is.
Filed with Pennsylvania, October 15, 2026
The promises on this page are written into our amended articles of incorporation, which the Pennsylvania Department of State filed on October 15, 2026. Don’t take our word for it: read the state’s filing.
Yes, incorporated in Pennsylvania
We’re a non-profit corporation based in Trappe, PA. No owners, no shareholders.
A state non-profit, not a 501(c)(3)
We’re not a federal charity, so we don’t take donations, and we pay tax on what we earn like any other company. But Pennsylvania law holds us to our non-profit structure and our purpose, so the mission stays locked in for good.
Postcards, prints, and founders
PhotoJoy is free. Postcards and prints ordered in the app pay part of the bill, and the founders cover the rest: servers, code, late nights.
Run for as long as people use it
We want the apps to pay their own way: servers, upkeep, and fair pay for the people who help build them. That’s how they stick around. Getting rich isn’t on the list.
Say hi
Questions, ideas, want to help, or want to tell us this whole thing is a little nuts? Email Chris directly. Every message gets read, since there’s no support team to forward it to.
[email protected]