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Does privacy mean anything to anyone anymore?

tommyz7

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Hi Everyone,

I'm building a privacy blockchain app (silkey.io) and I'm wondering if anyone can relate to the problems it's trying to solve. I'd like to see if the problems listed on the website are important to you and how are you solving them today. Please visit silkey.io and let me know your thoughts. All feedback and critique are welcome!

Disclaimer: I have a pretty specific solution in mind but I intentionally don't focus on it right now as I don't want to influence anyone. Right now, I'd like to understand how important privacy is to everyone and if you are trying to protect it today and how.
 
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drahz

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Maybe I do not really understand bigger picture of your solution.

But if it is about not receiving spam, there are very good solutions already... for example TempMail for one time email address... Kill-The-Newsletter for newsletters... and many people have multiple email addresses anyway... also GDPR thing is making companies scared of keeping personal data, so I think spam is not really a problem.

If it is about privacy... PGP is already here for decades.
 

Peal

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I agree with the problem, but I am pretty content with my current solution; a burner email and a burner, prepaid gift card.
 
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tommyz7

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Maybe I do not really understand bigger picture of your solution.

But if it is about not receiving spam, there are very good solutions already... for example TempMail for one time email address... Kill-The-Newsletter for newsletters... and many people have multiple email addresses anyway... also GDPR thing is making companies scared of keeping personal data, so I think spam is not really a problem.

If it is about privacy... PGP is already here for decades.
Thanks for your answer!

I'm thinking more about sign up, payments and emails from a user perspective. Think of it this way:

Did you ever find signing up using email and password annoying or inconvenient? For example, you wanted to try out some app quickly and you didn't want to sign up just yet.

Did you ever think about online credit card payment as insecure or inconvenient (typing all the numbers)? Were you ever hesitant about using credit card payment on an untrusted website?

Did you ever wanted to use some app for a day or just one time but the only option was subscription or trial that lead to a subscription?

Did you ever sign up to an app, subscribe, used it once, and immediately unsubscribe?
 
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tommyz7

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I agree with the problem, but I am pretty content with my current solution; a burner email and a burner, prepaid gift card.

How exactly do you use them? Do you have one burner email and one burner prepaid card? Do you use them for all the things that you want to stay anonymous? How do you decide where to pay with prepaid and where to use regular email and card?
 

drahz

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Did you ever find signing up using email and password annoying or inconvenient? For example, you wanted to try out some app quickly and you didn't want to sign up just yet.

Sure, that is really annoying... but the annoying part is waste of time with the process, more than me not wanting to sign up... and for that, there are sign-In solutions from Google, Facebook, Github, etc. So it is more like "one click" to sign up.

Did you ever think about online credit card payment as insecure or inconvenient (typing all the numbers)? Were you ever hesitant about using credit card payment on an untrusted website?

Not really, there is PayPal after all, I prefer to use it if possible. Many websites have integrated gazillion options for payments including crypto already. Regarding the fear of using a credit card, I have a limit on my bank account... and even when I had a problem that someone used my credit card (stolen), my bank took care of that.

Did you ever wanted to use some app for a day or just one time but the only option was subscription or trial that lead to a subscription?

Annoying is if there is a trial with them wanting my credit card number... except for that, I have no problem with trials.

Did you ever sign up to an app, subscribe, used it once, and immediately unsubscribe?

Not sure, maybe.
 

biggeemac

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Privacy is pretty much gone for now. Watch any of Edward Snowdens videos. Cell Smart phones are particularly concerning. There simply is not convenient way to use the apps and conveniences that we enjoy without giving up privacy. Your smart phone is giving your details out just about every second that it remains powered up.
 
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tommyz7

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Sure, that is really annoying... but the annoying part is waste of time with the process, more than me not wanting to sign up... and for that, there are sign-In solutions from Google, Facebook, Github, etc. So it is more like "one click" to sign up.



Not really, there is PayPal after all, I prefer to use it if possible. Many websites have integrated gazillion options for payments including crypto already. Regarding the fear of using a credit card, I have a limit on my bank account... and even when I had a problem that someone used my credit card (stolen), my bank took care of that.



Annoying is if there is a trial with them wanting my credit card number... except for that, I have no problem with trials.



Not sure, maybe.

You have a technical background, don't you? PGP (and other stuff) is not common knowledge.


Privacy is pretty much gone for now. Watch any of Edward Snowdens videos. Cell Smart phones are particularly concerning. There simply is not convenient way to use the apps and conveniences that we enjoy without giving up privacy. Your smart phone is giving your details out just about every second that it remains powered up.

Yes, that's a sad reality. There's not much you can do about smart phones because it's not the phone that is spying on you but the app you installed. Unless there some hidden deal with the manufacturer of the phone.

I wonder, in day to day life, would you prefer a way to use web apps and pay without giving away your email and credit card number or it's not that important to you?
 

Johnny boy

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Hi Everyone,

I'm building a privacy blockchain app (silkey.io) and I'm wondering if anyone can relate to the problems it's trying to solve. I'd like to see if the problems listed on the website are important to you and how are you solving them today. Please visit silkey.io and let me know your thoughts. All feedback and critique are welcome!

Disclaimer: I have a pretty specific solution in mind but I intentionally don't focus on it right now as I don't want to influence anyone. Right now, I'd like to understand how important privacy is to everyone and if you are trying to protect it today and how.

Normal people don't care about privacy.

But fortunately there are LOTS of paranoid people.

How to sell anything related to "blockchain privacy app" would be to find conservative conspiracy theory youtube channels. Just search "Qanon" and contact the youtube channels and offer a sponsorship deal for them to mention your privacy app.
 
D

Deleted74338

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Most people don't care about privacy, most people also don't know why they should care about privacy online or offline.
 
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MHP368

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I think your going to be serving a privacy niche. The default is "free content in exchange for my info" so tour fighting uphill. I have a buddy who has a vpn , a firewall etc etc , he would buy your thing.

What jumped our for me was having to pay with cryptocurrency , I have samsung pay built into my phone with a screen lock and fingerprint clearance. I have one click PayPal. I have amazon prime , boom , at my door in days. You're introducing an inconvenience for me the consumer.

So thats where I think the problem lies , you have to educate the market. I think its a great solution and the site looks clean and also I believe you have enough of a base to make a go of things (duckduckgo is doing pretty well, plenty of vpn providers etc) , that being said having to educate people about privacy and then upset them on your solution (which as I pointed out is inconvenient for most people) is going to be a thing.

The only reason I personally use a VPN is because my own business relies on easy access to peoples data and in doing research on my sphere I found a troubling amount of impropriety , average Joe really wasn't paying any attention at all to what Snowden leaked for starters (then again average Joe goes on a racist tirade on Facebook and loses his average joe job so that makes sense)
 

Peal

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How exactly do you use them? Do you have one burner email and one burner prepaid card? Do you use them for all the things that you want to stay anonymous? How do you decide where to pay with prepaid and where to use regular email and card?

Yeah, honestly I use a burner email for most things i.e. this forum. And it's less about privacy and more about being annoyed with junk mail. I only use my legit email that I get notifications for with important stuff like banking. If I want a free trial I'll use the prepaid card. I don't know how many people think like that but it's a pretty simple solution.

I hope that helps and good luck to you. I like the mission!
 

tommyz7

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Most people don't care about privacy, most people also don't know why they should care about privacy online or offline.

Yes, I fully agree. However, I still think that there's a lot of people who kind of get it, or are privacy fighters like me. Like @MHP368 mentioned, DuckDuckGo and Brave are doing quite well. Brave is adding 1 mln users a month as we speak and the whole marketing message is about privacy. Currently, there are 15mln Brave users, it's a nice niche. Do you personally use any privacy solutions like others mentioned, VPN, burner email, burner credit card/prepaid?

I think your going to be serving a privacy niche. The default is "free content in exchange for my info" so tour fighting uphill. I have a buddy who has a vpn , a firewall etc etc , he would buy your thing.

What jumped our for me was having to pay with cryptocurrency , I have samsung pay built into my phone with a screen lock and fingerprint clearance. I have one click PayPal. I have amazon prime , boom , at my door in days. You're introducing an inconvenience for me the consumer.

So thats where I think the problem lies , you have to educate the market. I think its a great solution and the site looks clean and also I believe you have enough of a base to make a go of things (duckduckgo is doing pretty well, plenty of vpn providers etc) , that being said having to educate people about privacy and then upset them on your solution (which as I pointed out is inconvenient for most people) is going to be a thing.

The only reason I personally use a VPN is because my own business relies on easy access to peoples data and in doing research on my sphere I found a troubling amount of impropriety , average Joe really wasn't paying any attention at all to what Snowden leaked for starters (then again average Joe goes on a racist tirade on Facebook and loses his average joe job so that makes sense)

Yes, the onboarding process is a HUGE challenge for crypto (but wasn't that the same for e-commerce 20 years ago?). Interestingly, when talking to people who are already on the other side, they say they prefer paying with crypto for convenience, go figure. I even have a story of a guy who runs a $1B Trust in Chicago and I witnessed his reaction when he transferred $100k using Ethereum for the first time. It was like watching a child walk for the first time. He was so amazed of ease of it. Crypto is part of the solution because whenever you pay with CC or ACH, WIRE etc you are not anonymous, while crypto is like cash.

Anyway, there is hope. Brave Browser has 15 mln users and growing fast. Not many people know that Brave is a 100% crypto project by BAT (Basic Attention Token) and was funded by $35m ICO (Inicial Coin Offering) in 2017 and it has a built-in crypto wallet. It means that there are already 15mln people with crypto wallets and they may not even know it. Getting some crypto to that wallet is still a problem but that can be somewhat engineered.

I guess the question is:

Are there people out there, motivated enough to set up a crypto wallet to be able to start using the web without email, CC and being followed on every click.

Yeah, honestly I use a burner email for most things i.e. this forum. And it's less about privacy and more about being annoyed with junk mail. I only use my legit email that I get notifications for with important stuff like banking. If I want a free trial I'll use the prepaid card. I don't know how many people think like that but it's a pretty simple solution.

I hope that helps and good luck to you. I like the mission!

This is really helpful, thanks!
 
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D

Deleted74338

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Yes, I fully agree. However, I still think that there's a lot of people who kind of get it, or are privacy fighters like me. Like @MHP368 mentioned, DuckDuckGo and Brave are doing quite well. Brave is adding 1 mln users a month as we speak and the whole marketing message is about privacy. Currently, there are 15mln Brave users, it's a nice niche. Do you personally use any privacy solutions like others mentioned, VPN, burner email, burner credit card/prepaid?



Yes, the onboarding process is a HUGE challenge for crypto (but wasn't that the same for e-commerce 20 years ago?). Interestingly, when talking to people who are already on the other side, they say they prefer paying with crypto for convenience, go figure. I even have a story of a guy who runs a $1B Trust in Chicago and I witnessed his reaction when he transferred $100k using Ethereum for the first time. It was like watching a child walk for the first time. He was so amazed of ease of it. Crypto is part of the solution because whenever you pay with CC or ACH, WIRE etc you are not anonymous, while crypto is like cash.

Anyway, there is hope. Brave Browser has 15 mln users and growing fast. Not many people know that Brave is a 100% crypto project by BAT (Basic Attention Token) and was funded by $35m ICO (Inicial Coin Offering) in 2017 and it has a built-in crypto wallet. It means that there are already 15mln people with crypto wallets and they may not even know it. Getting some crypto to that wallet is still a problem but that can be somewhat engineered.

I guess the question is:

Are there people out there, motivated enough to set up a crypto wallet to be able to start using the web without email, CC and being followed on every click.



This is really helpful, thanks!
Yep, I use a vpn and duckduckgo as my search engine.
 

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