Dead Man's Switch • Hacker News Board

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#41

Post by xyzzyz » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

pyre wrote: post #37

s2r2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a little unclear on what problem you're trying to solve. So am I, actually, sorry. My initial thought was that a central authority (a host that might go down or bankrupt) could be avoided if I were to split my secret into parts, distribute them among my loved ones (telling them what it is about and that I trust them they'll not meet behind my back while I'm still alive), accompanied by instructions how it works…

What happens if your death coincides with the death of one of your secret holders (I.e. you and your mom die in a car accident)?

You could setup a scheme where just X (but no less) out of all Y (partial) secret holders are enough to recover the secret. There are cryptographic schemes for that.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#42

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:42 PM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #10

wccrawford wrote: post #2

Interesting, but potentially disastrous, depending on your email contents, if the company messes up. For this, I'd rather have a lawyer, a safe, a bank box... Anything that would end up dealing with my friends and family if I died.

I concur, with the following additional reasons. First, depending on what you meant by "mess up": there's a chance they're not trustworthy (would read something you don't want read), and there's also a chance they screw up (and lose what you want sent - or send it when it shouldn't be sent). Perhaps an even bigger thing for me is that an email seems so... off-hand, informal. I think if a friend/relative/etc died and…

Hey guys, I read the entire frontpage and somehow missed this story: I made Dead Man's Switch, and the beta is the second iteration, hosted on GAE. I certainly didn't expect it to be HNed so early.

These are all valid concerns. This isn't meant to replace wills or lawyers, it's just something to tell your friends to maybe look for you in the mountains if you don't respond in X days.

Some people also had the idea of using it to monitor infirm/elderly people, so I wrote this second version to hopefully have more flexibility to interface with phone/sms/etc.

I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have!

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#43

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:45 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #38

wccrawford wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I would never trust actual will-type stuff to it, that's for sure. But I certainly don't want a 'I died, sorry!' message going out to my mailing lists prematurely, either.

putting a "i died, sorry!" message on any sort of automated system would be colossally stupid (unless you plan to kill yourself, i guess). just have it send out a message saying something like "this is an automated message: i have been unreachable by email for the last 52 days. maybe something is wrong - give me a call"

The email that gets sent out has a disclaimer above it anyway:

     has set up a Dead Man's Switch to notify you if
    they were unreachable, and we haven't seen them in a while,
    so we must assume the worst. If you need something, please
    email us at support@deadmansswitch.net.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#44

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:47 PM UTC

leif wrote: post #13

wccrawford wrote: post #2

Interesting, but potentially disastrous, depending on your email contents, if the company messes up. For this, I'd rather have a lawyer, a safe, a bank box... Anything that would end up dealing with my friends and family if I died.

the "beta" in the url doesn't make this feeling any better

This is the beta rewrite that only launched two days ago or so. The main site (http://www.deadmansswitch.net) has been running since 2006, I think, with no issues.

I took care to write loads of tests for the email sending bit specifically, too, but I wouldn't want people to add their sensitive emails before it's a bit better tested in actual use, hence "beta".

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#45

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:49 PM UTC

rheide wrote: post #12

I've actually been looking for this for a long time. I like to travel around and often wonder what will happen to my digital legacy (code, internet bank accounts, subscriptions to all kinds of things, scanned documents). My previous solution was to e-mail an encrypted file to my parents and give them the password to it on a note, which was then put in the safe. I'll try the site but I'm a bit wary of whether or not i…

I would recommend that everyone encrypts the emails that go on the service, as obviously we can't do it ourselves (we have to actually be able to read them to send them out!).

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#46

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:51 PM UTC

elliottcarlson wrote: post #5

I remember a service like this at least 6 years ago, possibly much longer - would be interesting to see if they are still around and if they ever had to "activate" for anyone.

This service has been around since 2006, probably earlier (I can't remember when I first built it), so this might be the same one.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#47

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:51 PM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #15

It would be cool if this service could monitor your Twitter/Facebook/etc for signs of life to cut down on the link-clicking required, and to add more resilience in the case of spam filtering.

That's a very good idea! I'll see if I can have some basic Twitter integration soon.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#48

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:52 PM UTC

lawlit wrote: post #31

What if my email provider, let's call it @MySuperAwesomeEmailProvider.com just goes out of business and decided to stop the service. Then I can't answer to the emails you will "life-ping" me with. And I won't even be able to change my email address on your system because I would have lost my account password. And then the next day, I don't think I would be able to go out.

You can just send us an email and prove that you own the account and we'll change your email for you, it's not that big a problem.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#49

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 4:54 PM UTC

rufibarbatus wrote: post #9

jsherer wrote: post #4

Sounds like an interesting idea. But, like others, I am skeptical relying on a "beta labeled" web service to handle this for me.

The beta is for a "new and improved" version. If you remove beta from the address, you can access the current let's-call-it "stable" version. I played around with this a while ago. Didn't think the way it's implemented solves the problem as I perceive it. (Plus, the risk of these confirmation emails ending up in spam felt a bit like a downer.)

I want to eventually integrate Twilio so it can call you and have you enter a PIN to check in, rather than email, or something to that effect (maybe reply to an SMS?).

That's for a bit further ahead, though.

Re: Dead Man's Switch

#50

Post by prpon » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 5:05 PM UTC

A cousin passed away few years back with cancer. It wasn't sudden but wasn't expected either. (He was 37 and responding well to treatment). His wife was completely uninterested with regards to finances and bills.

He was quite meticulous and wrote down every single account he owned, details like account number, login, password in an excel spreadsheet. It was a lot of help for her.

I worry about security of such a system. I also worry about security of online services for using such a system. I also worry if my wife would be able to locate that file.

Are there any schemes that work for you?