What 'Built for Good' Means at siasola

"Ethical tech" has become one of those phrases that means everything and nothing at the same time. Every company claims to care about doing the right thing. Major platforms publish responsibility reports, hire ethics teams, and run ad campaigns about how much they value their users. Then they quietly redesign their notification systems to be more addictive, bury privacy settings behind seven menu layers, and make it functionally impossible to delete your account.

The gap between what companies say and what they actually do has made the entire concept feel hollow. So we skip the label entirely. At siasola, we talk about building for good, and what matters is the specific, verifiable practices behind that phrase.

This article lays out exactly what "built for good" means at siasola, not as philosophy, but as concrete decisions that shape how we build products, set prices, and treat the people who use our software.

The Four Pillars of Building for Good

We have distilled our approach into four principles that are specific enough to be actionable and measurable. These are not aspirational values on a poster. They are design constraints that we apply to every product decision.

1. No Dark Patterns

2. No Data Selling

3. Transparent Pricing

4. Meaningful Free Tiers

Each of these deserves detailed explanation, because the devil is always in the details.

No Dark Patterns: Designing for Clarity, Not Manipulation

Dark patterns are user interface designs that trick, manipulate, or pressure people into actions they did not intend or do not want. They are everywhere in consumer technology, and they work, which is exactly why they persist despite widespread criticism.

What Dark Patterns Look Like

Guilt trips. "Are you sure you want to cancel? Your progress will be lost and you will miss out on all these benefits." This language is designed to make you feel bad about leaving, not to inform you about consequences.

Fake urgency. "Only 2 spots left!" "This offer expires in 3 minutes!" These tactics create artificial pressure to make decisions quickly, before you have time to think clearly. In most cases, the scarcity is entirely manufactured.

Bait-and-switch. Advertising a product at one price or feature set, then revealing the real cost or limitations only after the user is invested in the process. Free trials that auto-convert to expensive subscriptions with no warning are a classic example.

Confirm-shaming. Framing the "no" option in insulting terms: "No thanks, I don't want to save money" or "I'll stay uninformed." This is designed to make opting out feel like admitting a personal failing.

Hidden costs. Showing a low price prominently, then adding fees, surcharges, and "processing costs" during checkout. The actual price is discovered only after the user has committed significant time and effort to the purchase process.

Obstruction. Making it easy to sign up and nearly impossible to cancel. Requiring phone calls during business hours, multi-step cancellation flows with repeated "are you sure?" prompts, or burying the cancel button in settings menus that are genuinely hard to find.

How siasola Avoids Dark Patterns

Cancellation is as easy as subscription. If you want to cancel your subscription to Siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds or Siasola Cycling Beats, you cancel it. No phone calls, no guilt trips, no retention flows designed to change your mind. You subscribed with a tap, you cancel with a tap. We would obviously prefer that you stay, but we would rather earn your continued subscription through product quality than keep it through friction.

No fake urgency or manufactured scarcity. Our pricing does not change based on countdown timers. Our features do not disappear if you do not act within an arbitrary window. The app costs what it costs, and that price is available whenever you are ready.

Clear, honest communication. When we describe what our apps do, we describe what they actually do. Our app store listings, website copy, and in-app messaging reflect the real product. If a feature has limitations, we state them up front rather than letting you discover them after purchase.

No confirm-shaming. If you choose not to subscribe, the response is neutral. We do not frame free-tier usage as a lesser choice, and we do not imply that choosing not to pay means you do not care about your health or fitness.

No Data Selling: Privacy as a Business Model

This pillar is important enough that we wrote an entire dedicated article about it: Why We Don't Sell Your Data (And Never Will).

The short version: we do not sell, share, license, or otherwise monetize your personal data. We do not embed advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or third-party data collection tools in our apps. We collect the minimum information necessary for the app to function, and nothing more.

This is possible because our business model does not depend on data monetization. We charge a fair price for our products. Our revenue comes from subscriptions, not surveillance.

Transparent Pricing: What You See Is What You Pay

Pricing transparency sounds simple, but it is surprisingly rare in practice. Many apps use pricing strategies designed to obscure the real cost or to lock users into commitments they did not fully understand.

What Transparent Pricing Means in Practice

No hidden fees. The subscription price listed is the price you pay. There are no processing fees, platform surcharges, or surprise charges. What you see in the app store is what comes off your card.

Clear tier differentiation. We clearly explain what is included in the free tier and what requires a subscription. There is no ambiguity about which features are free and which are premium. You never encounter a feature in the app that looks available but reveals a paywall only after you try to use it.

No manipulative pricing psychology. We do not show an inflated "original price" crossed out next to a "discounted" price that is actually the normal price. We do not use charm pricing designed to make costs feel smaller than they are through arbitrary comparisons. The price is the price.

Cancel anytime. Our subscriptions are month-to-month or annual, and both can be cancelled at any time without penalties, fees, or convoluted processes. If we offer an annual discount, it is a straightforward volume discount: you pay less per month in exchange for a longer commitment. That is a legitimate value exchange, not a trap.

Meaningful Free Tiers: Not Crippled Demos

This is where many well-intentioned companies fall short. They offer a free tier that technically exists but is so limited that it is effectively useless, a teaser designed to frustrate you into paying rather than to provide genuine value.

Our free tiers are built on a different principle: the free version of the app should be genuinely useful on its own. Not just a taste. Not just a demo. A tool that provides real value to people who may never pay us a cent.

Why We Do This

Access should not depend on ability to pay. Siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds is a sound masking tool. People dealing with tinnitus deserve access to customizable sound masking regardless of their financial situation. The free tier includes enough sounds, enough customization, and enough functionality to be genuinely useful. Premium features enhance the experience, but the core value is available to everyone.

Free users are not failures. Some companies treat free-tier users as "unconverted leads," people who exist only as potential revenue that has not yet been captured. We treat free-tier users as users. They deserve a good experience, responsive support, and a product that works well for them. Some will eventually subscribe because they want more. Many will not. Both outcomes are fine.

Genuine free tiers build trust. When someone uses the free version of an app and finds it genuinely useful, they develop trust in the product and the company behind it. If they eventually decide to subscribe, that decision is based on real experience and real value, not on frustration with artificial limitations.

What Our Free Tiers Include

In Siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds, free users get access to a curated selection of masking sounds, the frequency matching tool, and the multi-layer sound mixer. Premium unlocks the full sound library, advanced DSP effects, and additional customization options.

In Siasola Cycling Beats, free users get access to select tracks across all five energy zones and basic workout features. Premium unlocks the full music library, real-time cadence sync, and unlimited daily access.

The line between free and premium is drawn at "useful versus comprehensive," not at "frustrating versus functional."

Designing for Wellbeing, Not Engagement

The tech industry's obsession with engagement metrics has produced products that are deliberately designed to maximize time-in-app rather than value-delivered. Infinite scroll, notification spam, streak mechanics, variable reward schedules: these are not accidental features. They are intentional design choices borrowed from behavioural psychology and gambling mechanics.

At siasola, we do not optimize for engagement. We optimize for effectiveness.

No infinite scroll or doom-scrolling mechanics. Our apps have clear purposes and natural stopping points. You use Siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds when you need sound masking, and you stop when you are done. We do not design for "just one more scroll."

No manipulative notifications. We do not send push notifications designed to pull you back into the app through FOMO or artificial urgency. If we send a notification, it is because something actually relevant happened, like a feature you requested becoming available.

No streak mechanics. Streaks exploit loss aversion to keep you using an app even when you do not want or need to. We do not use streaks, daily challenges, or any mechanic that makes you feel bad for not opening the app every day.

No social comparison. We do not show you leaderboards, rankings, or other users' activity designed to trigger competitive behaviour or inadequacy. Your experience with our apps is personal, and we keep it that way.

The Business Case for Building for Good

We are sometimes asked whether this approach is a competitive disadvantage. The assumption behind the question is that dark patterns and data exploitation are necessary for profitability. Our experience suggests the opposite.

Retention through trust, not friction. When people stay subscribed because they trust you and value the product, they stay longer and with less effort than when they stay because cancellation is difficult. Our churn rate reflects this: users who subscribe tend to remain subscribers because the product delivers ongoing value.

Word-of-mouth growth. Users who feel respected by a product recommend it to others. When someone tells a friend "this app actually respects your privacy and does not try to manipulate you," that recommendation carries more weight than any ad campaign.

Lower support costs. When your pricing is transparent and your app is not designed to confuse, you get fewer complaints, fewer refund requests, and fewer support tickets from frustrated users. Honest design reduces the operational overhead that deceptive practices create.

Regulatory resilience. As governments worldwide tighten regulations around data privacy, dark patterns, and consumer protection, companies that have built their practices around exploitation face expensive compliance overhauls. We do not face this problem because our practices already exceed regulatory requirements.

Accountability and Evolution

We do not claim to be perfect. Building for good is not a destination you arrive at; it is a continuous practice. We evaluate our design decisions regularly, and we are open to feedback when something does not align with the principles we have described here.

If you notice something in our apps that feels manipulative, unclear, or inconsistent with these commitments, tell us. We take that feedback seriously because it helps us stay honest. The worst thing a company can do is declare its own ethics and then stop examining them.

You can learn more about who we are and why we built siasola on our About page. You can also explore what we are building: Siasola Tinnitus Masking Sounds and Siasola Cycling Beats. Our apps are coming soon, and every one of them will ship with a meaningful free tier so you do not have to take our word for it.