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I like the idea of this, but having so many integral services in one silo scares me a bit. Recent security disclosures by FB, etc. also make breaches feel more like an inevitability, not just a possibility.

How do you plan to hold yourselves accountable in the event of a massive data breach? Everyone seems to take security "very seriously" after they're forced to make a disclosure, but few companies make concrete assertions regarding security before a breach.

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Great question. One of the things we're trying to do is encrypt everything in a way that requires multiple hacks to actually decrypt the content. We're keeping the encrypted content on our databases, but using multiple private keys (one tied to the user, one stored in a separate vault). Journal employees cannot decrypt a user's data without unlocking a vault on our end, and our auth store.

How do you respond to subpoenas?

Security is always relative however in this case its a little bit more risk. It definitely gives some protection against the database being hacked. I wonder if you allow the user credentials for the sites to be read back by the user on screen? One of the core principals is to never store the password credentials in plain text, however the way the service works you have to store them in plain. Another concern is if the service can read and gather the secrets from both the data stores to make the request then its a matter of some writing an API to leak that information by mistake or intentionally.

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