About - MySovereignty

Who runs this?

One founder: John Stroh, based in Aotearoa New Zealand. I look after the company, the design of the software, and the planning and testing. I also answer the messages that matter most to the people who use it. I don't write the code myself — I work closely with an AI assistant on that. Most of my time goes on thinking carefully about how to build digital tools people can trust.

AI help: An AI assistant does a lot of the day-to-day work — writing code, sorting through feedback, and research. That isn't a slogan: the software you see is built by one person working alongside AI.

A sounding board: My older brother is a valued sounding board. A lot of the thinking about trust, fairness, and who technology should serve comes out of long conversations with him.

Why this works: Large companies employ thousands of engineers and still build tools that quietly work against the people using them. A small team with clear values can do better. The difference isn't size — it's caring about the same things in the design as in the daily work.

How do we make money?

A simple subscription. You pay us. We serve you. That's it.

Passport: Free — a guide to digital tools that respect your privacy
Village Community: —/month (parishes, families, neighbourhoods, clubs, heritage groups)
Village Small Business: —/month (CRM, time tracking, invoicing for small teams)

"If it's free, you're the product."

We don't do that. No ads, and we never sell your information. We don't build features designed to keep you glued to a screen. You pay for the service, and the service is all you get. It shouldn't feel unusual, but it does.

Long-term thinking: We're building this to last, not to sell it on. There are no outside investors pushing us to squeeze more out of the people who use it. Steady income pays for steady work.

Why trust us?

Promises in writing: We've published a set of promises you can hold us to. Not a marketing page — clear commitments, written down, that you can point to if we ever fall short.

Open about how it's going: We report on how things are going a few times a year, and we say so plainly when something goes wrong. No spin — straight talk about what's working and what isn't.

We're learning: A lot of what we're doing is new — running a small company with this much help from AI, and building software that respects different languages and cultures properly. We're finding our way as we go. Will we make mistakes? Absolutely. The difference: we admit it, document it, and fix it openly.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitment: We recognise the leadership of indigenous communities in protecting their own data. The CARE Principles (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics) come from the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA, 2019), and in Aotearoa this work is led by Te Kāhui Raraunga (kahuiraraunga.io) — the current operative Māori Data Sovereignty body. Dr Karaitiana Taiuru's 2025 analysis guides how we engage with earlier frameworks.

Email support@mysovereignty.digital if we're not living up to our commitments. We mean it.

What happens in the long run?

It's one founder, working with AI. You deserve to know what happens down the track.

It's a fair question to ask what happens when the founder is no longer around to run things. The software works today and the values are clear — but what about ten years from now, or twenty? How do you know this won't become just another company that sells your data the moment things change hands?

Our answer is to set up a charitable trust, to build partnerships that keep indigenous data in the right hands, and to give communities a real say in how things are run. That's still a plan, not a finished thing, and there's a lot of work ahead. But you deserve to know where we're headed.

Read Our Full Plan →

What makes us different?

It comes down to what we build for, and what we won't build at all.

We don't test tricks to keep you online longer — we build tools that respect your time. We don't flatten everyone into one 'average' user. Different communities, languages and dialects matter, and we treat them that way.

What sets us apart:

Room for difference: We serve real communities as they are, rather than treating everyone the same.
Language and dialect matter: Dialects carry meaning. North Island and South Island Māori aren't the same, and we build with that in mind.
AI with a human in charge: We're open about how AI is used here. It helps with the work, but a person is always accountable for what it does.
Promises we've written down: Clear commitments, and we're open about how we're keeping them.
A business that pays its own way: You pay us, we look after you. Your data is never the product.

You either own your digital life or you don't — there's no halfway. Either you control your own information, or someone else does. Either your community's values count, or they don't. We've made our choice.

Who is this for — and who isn't it for?

It's fairer to be clear about who this suits. We're not for everyone. That's the point.

✓ This Is For You If:

You'd rather own your data than get a 'free' service
Your community has its own culture and language to look after
You're happy dealing with a small, open team
You like the idea of AI help with a person still in charge
You're willing to pay for your privacy
You value room for difference over one-size-fits-all
You're patient with something that's still growing

✗ This Is NOT For You If:

You need round-the-clock phone support (we're not there yet)
You need formal enterprise support contracts today
You need your language supported right now (more are coming)
You expect a finished, polished product
You'd rather not pay for the service
You want the scale of a huge company straight away
You'd rather no AI was involved at all

If you're in the second column, that's completely fine. Not everything is meant for everyone.

Trying something new

Running a company this closely with AI is new ground. We're figuring it out as we go. Here's what we've found so far:

What's Working:

AI is good at writing code, translating, and spotting patterns
A person keeps the values and the big decisions on track
Every AI answer passes three checks — for safety, for context, and for accuracy — before it reaches you
Being open about how it works earns trust, we hope

What We're Still Figuring Out:

How to give everyone good support with one person answering
When AI genuinely helps, and when it just gets in the way
How to check that translations get the cultural details right
What steady improvement really looks like at this size

We're learning in public. That's the question we're testing: can a small company run well with this much help from AI? And does being open about our limits earn more trust than pretending we have none?

In March 2026 we added Guardian Agents — a system that keeps our AI in check by testing its work, rather than trusting more AI to do it. You'll see confidence badges, links back to sources, and human moderators keeping an eye on things — all running on our own infrastructure. Read why we built them →

Support works the same way. When you flag a problem, the system looks into it and sorts it out in seconds, not days. The help widget answers questions on our own infrastructure. And as more Villages join, we're building a tuakana-teina model — experienced Village owners helping newer ones find their feet, growing over time into Māori-led services offered more widely. Read the support roadmap →

Every Village owner works through a two-part course covering privacy, moderation, and how the community is run. It's not box-ticking — it makes sure the people looking after a community understand what keeps their members safe. Download the accreditation guide (PDF) →

What we'll never do

Some lines we won't cross, whatever it might do for growth:

We'll never:

Sell your information to anyone — advertisers, AI companies, or anyone else
Use what you share to train AI without your clear say-so
Build features designed to keep you online longer than you meant to be
Use sneaky design to nudge you into sharing more than you wanted
Flatten every culture into one look and feel
Treat any dialect as lesser than a 'standard' version of a language
Give up on our principles just to grow faster
Use 'safety' as an excuse to watch what you do
Take money that comes with pressure to squeeze more out of the people who use it
Pretend to be bigger than we are

If we ever break these promises, call us out. Publicly. We mean it.

What are we building towards?

Vision: Families, communities and small businesses that own their digital lives. Not 'users' to be sold to. Not numbers to be nudged. People in charge of their own information.

This is about more than software. Owning your digital life isn't a feature you switch on. It's a change in who holds the reins, and what technology is really for.

The long game

Built to last, not to sell: Software made to serve people for the long haul
Rooted in Aotearoa, open to the world: What we've learned from Te Tiriti shapes how we work everywhere
Tractatus framework: Our research into keeping AI accountable, which guides everything we build
More than the Village apps: Working out ways to run AI responsibly that other people can use too

Is this a lot for one person and some AI? Yes, it is. But it seems stranger still that so much talent goes into building tools that work against the people using them. We're building the other thing. If that sounds right to you, come along.

About My Digital Sovereignty Ltd