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Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

zonemessenger.com

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Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#71

Post by fucking_tragedy »

A1kmm wrote: post #34

If it is exactly 1 km you could triangulate to find someone's location. A program to do that would do a bisection search along a line (faking coordinates for the location of the device) to find the point on the line where you transition to seeing the person's messages. Then, repeat along other two lines in different directions. Each transition point gives a circle of 1 km radius on which the person is present, and th…

This is trilateration, not triangulation. Triangulation works if you know the angles, trilateration works if you know the distances and uses circles.

Source: I've done this before and it is very accurate and creepy.

> This could be mitigated by rounding off coordinates to be coarse enough that it doesn't give their precise location before calculating the distance.

Reporting a slightly different location to users or varying the search radius per user search could help.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#72

Post by fucking_tragedy »

SamBam wrote: post #65
mgallowa wrote: post #61

I founded an anonymous social media platform in the past. It can be a real pain because once identity/accountability is removed, people tend to act very poorly. On paper, I like your idea of helping people to form risk-free connections, but it is very possible for your platform to spin out of your control. The small radius location nature of your app will likely mean a lot of negative press and/or police inquiries ab…

Indeed. Yik Yak is a huge platform for bullies: https://www.google.com/search?q=yik+yak+bullying Basically, if you use this near a school, then the school will be the main topic of conversation. And in that case (assuming students using this), half the conversations may be "So-and-so is a ____" Is there any thought of community moderation?

Law enforcement and schools are all over Yik Yak as well for this reason.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#73

Post by nkrisc »

zyx321 wrote: post #45
theveloped wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe YikYak is based on threads/comments right? The main difference is that my app is more like one big local chatbox. The initial idea was to achieve the atmosphere we used to have in (Dutch) public transport. Everyone could participate/listen to a couple of public conversations being held.

You say public transport, but I have my doubts it'll work particularly well on the subway.

I think that was the inspiration rather than the goal. That's how I interpreted that comment.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#74

Post by tghw »

theveloped wrote: post #58
A1kmm wrote: post #34

If it is exactly 1 km you could triangulate to find someone's location. A program to do that would do a bisection search along a line (faking coordinates for the location of the device) to find the point on the line where you transition to seeing the person's messages. Then, repeat along other two lines in different directions. Each transition point gives a circle of 1 km radius on which the person is present, and th…

Due to the fact that distance matching is done server side the application doesn't have any knowledge with regard to distance. The only knowledge one has is whether or not one receives messages from an other user. Using triangulation to pinpoint an other users location would therefore require to move in and out of range (while the targeted user is continuously sending messages). Thus significantly more difficult than…

How exactly do you close the API to outside requests? It's not hard to reverse engineer most APIs, either by decompiling the app or just watching the wire.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#75

Post by bradbeattie »

A1kmm wrote: post #34

If it is exactly 1 km you could triangulate to find someone's location. A program to do that would do a bisection search along a line (faking coordinates for the location of the device) to find the point on the line where you transition to seeing the person's messages. Then, repeat along other two lines in different directions. Each transition point gives a circle of 1 km radius on which the person is present, and th…

Could this be defeated by a "snap to grid" technique? The installed client takes the actual location of the user and locates the nearest grid point (the resolution of which is up for debate) and reports as at that location?

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#76

Post by denzil_correa »

mgallowa wrote: post #61

I founded an anonymous social media platform in the past. It can be a real pain because once identity/accountability is removed, people tend to act very poorly. On paper, I like your idea of helping people to form risk-free connections, but it is very possible for your platform to spin out of your control. The small radius location nature of your app will likely mean a lot of negative press and/or police inquiries ab…

Secret.ly an anonymous messaging app, also shut down due to similar concerns.

https://medium.com/secret-den/sunset-bc18450478d5#.7bzsu8ut6

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/technology/a-founder-of-se...

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#77

Post by rkangel »

annnnd wrote: post #17
theveloped wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "privacy" ( http://www.zonemessenger.com/privacy ) and "terms" ( http://www.zonemessenger.com/terms ) should give you two static pdf's. On my side it's only the "about" link that is dead (will be my personal website). If "privacy"/"terms" really don't work on your side let me know! As of now there is no commercial backing what so ever. It's mealy a side-project that finally got finished. And for now there is also…

Privacy: Over Quota This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again later.

Ah, the old Hacker News death hug.

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#79

Post by golanggeek »

mywittyname wrote: post #69
peterkshultz wrote: post #66

That the app is both geofenced and anonymous reminds me of Yik Yak, which was a huge success on my college campus before the company decided to move away from anonymity. Did you develop this as a side project, or is this something you want to turn into a business?

Yik Yak dropped anonymity because they had a problem with harassment on the platform. I'm not sure how Zone is going to be any different.

Interesting issue though.. that it should not become an harassment

Re: Show HN: Anonymous messaging with a 1km radius

#80

Post by th33ngineer »

theveloped wrote: post #13
Jamieee wrote: post #9

So like YikYak, but not based on campus and before they ruined it?

I believe YikYak is based on threads/comments right? The main difference is that my app is more like one big local chatbox. The initial idea was to achieve the atmosphere we used to have in (Dutch) public transport. Everyone could participate/listen to a couple of public conversations being held.

> one big local chatbox.

If you are within the range of one user, who is having a conversation with someone in their range but not in yours, will you only see one side of their conversation?

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