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Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

deadman.io

31–40 of 53 posts

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#32
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But for that use case, I have to tell the mob boss that I uploaded a secret to deadman.io. At which point he takes out his rubber hose collection, and gently persuades me to log in and delete the secret.

Not necessarily. You could say, I have a bunch of documents that implicate you and they'll be sent out to authorities should I not answer my email or phone at N time.

"I know you really don't want to tell me where those documents are, but maybe you'll tell my friend, Mr. Hosey?"

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#33
post #8

"100% Secure/Durable." Okay, if you say so. Why should I trust this? Now I have to decide whether it's more likely that I get struck by lightning or you do. Well, you spent 17 whole hours on it... Sorry, I don't mean to diss your thing, it's a nice idea. I'm just sick of all the exaggerated reliability claims of these startup projects. Maybe I'm crazy, but if you claim "100% durability" on something fairly important,…

It (now) says 0%, not 100% secure/durable. I find it funny.

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#34

In case the OP doesn't mention it, he won the LSRC hackathon with this idea! Congrats! He also had a pretty funny presentation, pretty tongue-in-cheek.

Interestingly enough, he never mentioned it was built on Python/GAE.

Sorry to out you buddy!

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#35

Yes, I'd gladly share my super-secret - so secret I only want it revealed when I die - stuff with some random website. No bueno. I'm sorry, but this is basically one of those services you can't really run on a hosted environment. I think the ultimate solution is a dead man's switch that is tied to something physical, aka a password in a bank vault that unencrypts a file somewhere. Yes, you have to trust the bank, but…

Perhaps a better method for less trustworthy heirs is to give them half of a worded password. Say the password is "pond elephant evergreen tennis skyscraper electric". You give them "pond elephant evergreen" now (in searchable e-mail), and let the dead man's switch give them "tennis skyscraper electric".

Alternatively, let the dead man's switch alert heirs to swap their half of the password, so that all heirs now have the full password. Then you don't overly depend on the dead man's switch.

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#36
post #34

In case the OP doesn't mention it, he won the LSRC hackathon with this idea! Congrats! He also had a pretty funny presentation, pretty tongue-in-cheek.

Interestingly enough, he never mentioned it was built on Python/GAE. Sorry to out you buddy!

Cat's out of the bag. :)

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#37
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. You could say, I have a bunch of documents that implicate you and they'll be sent out to authorities should I not answer my email or phone at N time.

"I know you really don't want to tell me where those documents are, but maybe you'll tell my friend, Mr. Hosey?"

Maybe, but this is the case for any dead man's switch (even a bank/lawyer). It's always a balance between what the mob boss thinks he can get you to do vs the power of the dirt you have on him. Literature/TV have beaten to death the permutations/twists on this theme.

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#38
post #36
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly enough, he never mentioned it was built on Python/GAE. Sorry to out you buddy!

Cat's out of the bag. :)

Hah! No worries, my hack was 90% objective-c, with only a few lines of Ruby on Heroku as a backend.

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#39
post #16

I'm sure Jesse Lovelace (of the WhoIs record) will be happy to be on a receiving end of all inquires pertaining to enforcements of "your insurance policy."

Geez--no need to hate. This is a "cool demo" not a real service that I'm selling.

No hate whatsoever. It's a genuine concern, someone will end up using it without realizing it's a "cool demo".

Re: Show HN: Deadman.io - a digital dead man's switch

#40
post #2

If you have ideas, comments or suggestions let me know!

I really love the idea.

Personally I would never use a service like this for anything that needs to be secure. That's nothing against you more my own paranoia and honestly if it was some password to decrypt my files I'd just give it in a letter to the person I trust not surprise her with an email after I die which she'd probably cry over for days.

I'd probably consider using it to just tell the people I love that I'd miss them and what impact they had on my life.

I really don't get the draw about sending passwords, life insurance policies, and other secure data when you're dead. Would my family and loved ones care about any of that if I was gone? Probably not and if the information I stored was useful to them I'd have given them a way to access it offline in the event something happened.

Not against the service I think it's a great idea just think for the non-developers out there they'd probably prefer something closer to the heart to be sent.

Note: I know you didn't really suggest people send super secret things on the site just saying it in response to what everyone else is posting.

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