In 2009 the social network Chatroulette gained notoriety for its ability to anonymously pair two random people over video chat. Seeing and talking to a stranger without revealing your identity was a novel and exciting prospect then.

The novelty quickly wore off, however. Anyone who tried the site at the time will probably remember that in practice the “roulette” gamble was risky: while you might meet an interesting stranger, there was also a high chance of confronting a man mid-masturbation.

Now, in 2014, social media anonymity is pertinent once again but, rather than webcam gimmicks, this time it’s the result of a growing underlying concern about online privacy. Our many years of social media usage have amassed vast digital footprints of “likes”, photos and updates; now we’re wondering what’s happened to all that data. A study in Canada by non-profit agency MediaSmarts found that almost no students thought companies should have any access to people’s social media information. On top of all this, there’s also the more worrying climate created by government security agencies snooping into our data.

These fears have resulted in some people logging out of mainstream social networks altogether. A Statcounters/Eircom B&A survey last year found the main reason that people quit Facebook is due to privacy concerns. Many who flee Facebook turn to alternative means of online communication which offer better privacy and protection from third parties, businesses, governments, bosses and exes. This generation has been sharing every little bit of their lives for years, and yes, this trend does jump from one social network to the next, but as networks change, so do patterns of behaviour. These alternatives have been inspired by communication apps such as Whatsapp and Snapchat, which offer direct contact-to-contact conversations.

The Wut app, for instance, works as an anonymous broadcast to your friends. The user simply types a short message on its stripped-back interface and it is then sent as a push notification to all of their friends. This appears solely on the locked phone screen and doesn’t exist inside the app itself. A similar app, Frankly, allows people to send messages that self-destruct after five to 10 seconds, very like Snapchat. The background colour of the text can be changed to convey the user’s emotions. The idea, says founder and CEO of Tictoc Planet Inc Steve Chung, is to encourage genuine conversation – the sort unavailable to users on peer-led Facebook.

As well as speaking freely online, people are also finding ways to reveal gossip and share secrets. The Whisper app, recently valued at around $200m, creates an anonymous social media space, where people can carry out typical social media activity, but under the guise of a stranger. Secret app has a similar premise, except users to post messages anonymously to a feed which can be seen by anyone with the app and your mobile number.

According to founders Chrys Bader-Wechseler and David Byttow, the app’s secrecy appeals to people’s introverted side – an alternative to extrovert social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps inevitably, the app has mostly been used to spread rumours and hoaxes, reflecting the user’s inner desire to get opinions and thoughts off their chest in a way that isn’t possible on Facebook and Twitter. Garry Tan, co-founder of blog network Posterous, described it as a “release valve”.

Younger users are naturally fickle and may be turning to these new networks, and away from Facebook, through boredom, says social media expert Adam Grey. “It’s a case of becoming jaded. This generation has been sharing every little bit of their lives for years, and yes, this trend does jump from one social network to the next, but as networks change, so do patterns of behaviour. The kids want news, gossip and celebrities more than they want to worry about what their friends are up to or who’s tagging them in pictures.” So secure are these apps that they have formed important means of dialogue for revolution and the mobilisation of civil dissent. The workplace is another area where people’s sense of privacy has suffered.

According to software security firm AVG’s research division Digital Diaries, one in 10 people say they or a colleague have had something from social media used against them by a manager, while a further 50% say social media has eroded their privacy in the workplace altogether. Developers are responding to such concerns. Confide, which raised $1.9m of seed money in just one month, lets users send private messages that can only be seen when a finger is slid over the screen. The app is aimed at professionals who wish to informally communicate with colleagues away from the prying eyes of an inbox-checking boss. Essentially it’s a water-cooler chat in a handset.

Other people are using private communication as these apps offer much more secure channels than Twitter and Facebook. Telegram, a messaging app that shares features with competitors such as Whatsapp, WeChat and Line, has recently risen in popularity due its heightened security, which the developers claim is the most advanced in the world. The company will even give $200,000 to anyone who can crack its security software. So secure are these apps that they have formed important means of dialogue for revolution and the mobilisation of civil dissent.

In Venezuela the iPhone and Android app Zello, which effectively turns your phone into a walkie-talkie, was recently blocked by the government due to the fact that protesters were using it to communicate and organise themselves during the riots. “We are sad when free speech is blocked, but also proud to be important for our users,” says Bill Moore, the CEO of Zello.

“We are also happy to have restored Zello services within a day, and that Zello has remained available through multiple block attempts.” Although the app doesn’t deliberately target users in places of civil unrest, Moore says he isn’t surprised that it has been adopted for these purposes: “It’s the most popular app in the Ukraine, and last year was the most popular overall app in Turkey and Egypt during the peak of their [revolutionary] movements.”

These anonymous apps are fighting back against the social media elite and their murky privacy policies. In the long term, however, there is of course a problem with these networks: as soon as they attract hoards of users, big corporate networks pull out their chequebooks. Just recently, privacy advocates in the US raised suspicion about what Facebook might do with the personal information of the 450 million new users it acquired through its purchase of Whatsapp. Even so, as long as privacy concerns continue, for every big network there will be a developer making a covert alternative.

Originally published in issue #12 of the Protein Journal. Illustrations by Laurie Rollitt.