from Hacker News

ShowHN: Identity.io, Opt-out of data brokers and regain control of your privacy

by michaelaiello on 11/21/11, 8:39 PM with 22 comments

  • by michaelaiello on 11/21/11, 8:39 PM

    I’ve been concerned about privacy online for a while. There is an implicit trade that occurs on most “free” internet sites, your private information in exchange for some service – and it is not in the best interest of the sites to be transparent with the trade.

    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.

  • by davekinkead on 11/21/11, 10:18 PM

    You may want to check your front page links. Having most of them direct to http://www.identity.io/comingsoon while your virtualhosts file is out of whack (so prompt to download a httpd/unix-directory) doesn't inspire confidence that you will protect my identity.

  • by snampall on 11/21/11, 10:34 PM

    Looks good. Always wondered about all the sites that I have signed up for.

    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?

  • by TamDenholm on 11/21/11, 10:26 PM

    I applaud the effort but the one thing that really irks me about things like this is the same think that irks me about the no-call list, i have to put my name on a list to prevent my name from going on a list.

  • by jt11508 on 11/21/11, 10:17 PM

    Interesting in principle, but I couldn't open the About Me or FAQ, so hard to tell. Won't give up credentials to who knows who the people are.

  • by useflyer on 11/22/11, 1:52 AM

    Clearly inspired by MelonCard.com