A Facebook alternative with no ad profile behind it.
Communities, threads and messages, funded by subscriptions. There is no advertiser API, no ad-targeting profile, and no ad-serving code, because none of it was ever written.
If the objection is less about the feed and more about what is being built up about you in the background, the relevant fact is that there is no advertising system here for a profile to feed.
Side by side.
| Surf | ||
|---|---|---|
| How it makes money | Advertising | Subscriptions |
| Ads in the feed | Yes | None, on any plan |
| Ad-targeting profile | Yes | None, no ad system to feed |
| Ranking weights published | No | Yes, every weight |
| Feed without ranking | A Feeds filter | One switch, and it stays set |
| Why a post reached you | General reasons | The actual signals, per post |
| Encrypted direct messages | Default in Messenger | Default, and in groups to 256 |
| Communities | Groups | Spaces, built around a subject |
| Pay to promote one post | Yes | Not possible |
Every row describing Facebook reflects publicly documented behaviour and can change. Where they do something well, it says so.
Spaces, not groups you forgot you joined.
A Space is built around a subject, with its own feed and its own moderation. What surfaces inside one is ranked by the same published formula, with the same controls in your hands.
About Spaces
Film Photographers
4,210 members
Nothing is being assembled about you.
No ad-targeting profile, no data sold, no advertiser API. Not features that were turned off for a privacy page, but code that was never written, because the revenue never depended on it.
How privacy worksWhere Facebook still wins.
Surf is new, and the things it does not have are worth knowing before you move.
- Your family is not on it. For the one platform where that objection matters most, it is the honest answer.
- There is no import of posts, photos, friends or groups.
- Group threads above 256 members are not end-to-end encrypted.
- Some AI features run on our servers rather than your device. Five model families are local; summaries, search, transcription and writing help are not.
Questions people ask.
- Does Surf sell data to anyone?
- No, and the structural reason matters more than the promise: there is no advertising system, no advertiser API and no ad-targeting profile, so there is no buyer relationship for data to flow into. The revenue is subscriptions.
- Is everything encrypted?
- Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted by default, including in group threads up to 256 members. Above 256, a thread is not end-to-end encrypted. Posts are public content and are not encrypted, because a public post is public.
- Does the AI read my messages?
- No. AI features do not touch end-to-end encrypted message content. Of the features that do run, five model families run on your device, while summaries, semantic search, transcription and writing help are sent to inference providers.
- What does the free plan leave out?
- Limits, not the network. Free carries no ads, the full algorithm and every control, 2,200-character posts, 720p uploads, 50 AI actions a day, and encrypted messages. Paid tiers raise the ceilings and add creator payouts.
More in the help center, the algorithm page, and the full comparison.