Chances are, you’re already on a few data-broker lists, have shared something embarrassing out of context online, and have no idea how many different accounts you’ve signed up for.
I’m hoping to get some feedback on a site I’ve put together that is working toward solving this problem. It’s called Identity.io and it tires to makes privacy online automatic and simple for everyone. So far, the site does the following.
1) Sends you an alert if a site you use materially changes the way the site works which reduces your privacy (i.e. auto-opt-in on linkedin to using your face in adds)
2) Detects all the online accounts you register for, or have ever registered for in the past. It (optimally) does this by connecting to your gmail and running lots of regular expressions against subject lines, sort of like tripit.com.
3) Provides video tutorials and a checklist of what you should do to lockdown your privacy online for all the account types you have + how to opt out of data brokers and other spammers.
It would be great to hear your thoughts and feedback.
EDIT: We are aware we haven't posted up a privacy policy or an about page - trying to get some feedback on the concept and technology at this point. For the privacy policy, we expect to use one similar to our other site's http://www.privacyparrot.com/privacy.
I don't know if it's possible (or if it already does), but it'd be nice to see why it thinks I have an account with a place. It says I have a Bank of America account, but I use a local credit union.
Will this recognize if I've installed Ghostery? I have it installed, but have only installed it just a few days ago, before I joined this site. How does it know if you need to install it, or does it just say that for everyone? I also have Adblock installed and have since 2007, but it's telling me to install it.
I like that I can add multiple email addresses, but it did seem like it hung when I added new addresses, and no accounts showed up when I added my other gmail accounts and it didn't ask me for authentication for them. I'm not sure they got added properly. I'll check again when I get home.
Also, this:
>In August of 2011, professional social network Linkedin quietly introduced a new feature called social ads. It allowed companies to use photos of any of your contacts, with whom they, had a connection, in their adverts, effectively allowing your contact’s to endorse their products.
Excessive number of commas, I think.
Overall, though, it's given me a list of things I would never have known about. I have not followed any of the suggestions yet but I'll run through them when I get home from work. Very nice design, it works quick, and it found a good number of accounts. Are there plans to add more sites to the list or more sources for scanning accounts?
*edit - formatting
We are likely saying you have a BoA account because of an email which they sent you. Showing "how we know" is a good suggestion but would involve us storing some info from your email (which I imagine people who care about privacy are against)
no, it doesn't know if you have ghostery or adblock installed, just tells everyone to do this
multiple addresses: we thought we had this bug squashed, apparently not. Shouldn't be an issue in the future
Glad you find the suggestions useful. If there is pickup, we'll add more account types (currently we scan for about 250) and tutorials.
I'd pay for a service like this - hell, I'd _rather_ pay for a service like this.
This one (is a start) to answer your Q
Who's behind Identity.io?
Identity.io is by run by computer security and privacy experts who are serious about putting you in control of your information. We work out of the NYU-Poly Bloomberg Technology Incubator in New York City.
Signed up for it and added an email. The discovering part takes a lot of time and I couldn't do much during this time. How about doing the discovery in the background and let the user explore or do other stuff on the site?
