bdominy

She gave a talk at TechCrunch last year and kindly spoke to me briefly afterwards about how end-to-end encryption can help businesses. The problem is that without a huge benefactor, there isn’t enough consumer demand to make a sustainable business out of privacy concerns.

I created an app to do end-to-end encrypted contact info sharing and updating with your second point in mind. By holding only encrypted data that can't be accessed by us, people will hopefully trust their contact info is only in the hands of people they want. https://neu.cards

This helps with the initial exchange of contact information, but keeping it updated for the people that have it is a real challenge, especially if you want to avoid using social media.

Keeping contact info updated is a real challenge. I’ve been using neucards as it helps me know who has my info and I can switch which card someone has anytime. Here is my social card if you want to connect - https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=VOEF1RShv3&k=46QYx...

If you have an audience in mind, try meeting them in person to demo your solution. I've found people are most receptive when they see your passion and resolve.

"By offering end-to-end encryption they can give power back to the users and simultaneously simplify their regulatory burden."

This is exactly why I use e2ee in my app. I sleep better knowing that the keys to the castle are not solely in my hands, but rather with each user. They will always have a say in how their data is used because they ultimately control access.

California is attempting to pass the DELETE act which provides new rights to control your personal information with respect to data brokers. (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/californias-delete-act...)

People should also look for end-to-end encryption tools as they can provide some protections immediately.

Actually, I have an option in Neucards' settings that adds a Contacts tab which lets you access your phone's contacts directly within Neucards. I agree people should not need to go back and forth to find what they are looking for.

It does work without the app. You can display a QR code on your phone's screen to let people see and act on your contact info even if they don't have Neucards installed. In fact, I use my wife's android phone all the time for testing. You can also set up card types to just share certain info, like professional, personal, family, friends, etc.

The tap cards do not have a QR code printed on them because I create an access key dynamically when you activate the tap card.

Yes. LinkedIn is, in my experience, the go to way of connecting at conferences. I should mention, though, that one feature I really like myself in Neucards is location tagging when you exchange your digital card. This lets me see months later not just when, but also where, I met someone and makes it much easier to remember the context around the exchange.

Yes, for the NFC tags you will need an internet connection, but the Neucards app does maintain a local cache of the digital cards you have received. You can view the details of those cards and kick off an action, like make a call or send an email, by just tapping on the info. Updates occur when I edit my card or account information and notifications are sent to the list of recipients for my card. Neucards does a sync at launch or when triggered by a notification.

As for adding info to the phone contacts, this is a tricky situation. Right now, I do not sync the contact info from received cards into the contacts on the phone. This is because the contacts on the phone are a shared resource that other apps can access, and I don't want people's contact info to leak. I do support caller identification, so you will see a person's name rather than just a number when they call for all of the numbers on your received cards. But, this isn't as robust of an experience as having all the info in the phone's contacts.

That looks very useful! I like your focus on privacy. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, I wrote about my experience creating the NFC tags at IndieHackers - https://www.indiehackers.com/post/shipped-my-first-order-tod...

Thank you! I'm glad you like the idea.

For sharing with others who don't have the app, the link you send lets them see your card's contact information on the neucards' website which they can act on. So, for example, I typically share my phone number, linked in profile, twitter handle, etc. and that works faster for me than just giving someone my number and texting them the rest. Also, by using card types, you can set up multiple cards (Professional, Personal, Friends, Minimal, etc.) and then have more control over what info you share initially.

I'm very much hoping to add Android and making neucards as universal as possible. Open sourcing would definitely help with that, but I'm taking a wait and see approach. The physical nfc tags were just added and if people embrace them, then it would make that approach more viable.

You may be right. It isn't easy to convince people to try something new. As for your website contact info link, how do you tell people that have the link to revisit it when you've made a change?

100% agree. I'm hoping to add Android and other markets in the not too distant future. As for unsharing, that's possible by removing a recipient and I have plans to help even more in the scenario you describe.

Also, I was recently on the Shifting Privacy Left podcast hosted by Debra Farber discussing Neucards and privacy in general. You can listen at https://shiftingprivacyleft.buzzsprout.com/2059470/12853299-...

Sorry. I mean Apple adds steps to releasing an app outside the US if it uses encryption. I'm doing neucards as a solo effort and am hoping to see some traction before taking on those requirements. Here is a link to Apple's policy

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/complying...

For card links, I'm using a one time key to protect the information stored on my server. The end-to-end encryption works when you exchange cards using the Neucards app with another Neucards user. It's a tricky situation because people won't use it if it isn't able to quickly exchange contact info like a vcard or other digital cards. The goal was to make sure nothing could be read by a third party without the user giving them access. As for opening the source, I'm going to wait and see. I understand the need for verification, but it is also difficult to make a living doing that.

Unfortunately, it is restricted to the US App Store due to there being a higher compliance necessary for using encryption in Europe and other countries outside the US. Once I get some traction, I'm planning to release it everywhere.

Thanks! Good catch! I could use all the help I can get :)

Thank you! Contacts sharing and updating has had a lot of takes over the years. I remember Plaxo and Bump, back in the day. I'm hoping adding a privacy focus will help people feel more comfortable sharing better information and improving their connections.

I agree that people generally don't concern themselves too much with how their information is protected. Most people simply assume that it already is or that they can't really do much about it without giving up a lot of convenience. However, I have noticed in specific cases, people do pay attention. In my case, I'm protecting contact information while sharing with others and most people think it is a great use of e2ee.

It is important for everyone to protect their contact information as usually the first step for scammers is harvesting those details. Use a junk email account for all of your online transactions. Try getting a secondary phone number you can give out to everyone who isn't close to you. Avoid giving access to your contacts for any mobile apps. Be mindful about who has your contact info and what you are sharing.

I posted about my app Neucards that lets you share contact info with others using end-to-end encryption to protect your privacy. With data breaches, robocalls, identity theft, and scams on the rise, giving your contact details out should be under your control and even the people facilitating the exchange should not have access. Available on iOS at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neucards/id1599851881

Most people are just learning that their online conversations are not as private as they believed, but the real-life consequences for that lapse is almost zero which is why there is not more demand for secure solutions. What does affect you, however, is the harvesting of your contact info as spam, robocalls, identity theft, and a multitude of scams all begin with the gathering of those details. E2EE is gaining ground with the public and my hope is for all channels between individuals online to eventually be protected.

In an ideal world, E2EE would be in high demand and used anytime sensitive info is exchanged between parties, but the reality is that most people don't know about it or the protections it provides. If FB and Apple can educate people about E2EE, even as a PR tactic, it helps grow that awareness.

In my experience having released an E2EE contact info sharing app, most people don't think about privacy protection and they won't tolerate much inconvenience to add them. So the more a large company supports efforts to mainstream E2EE, the better it is for everyone.

Having a co-founder is a simple way to show you have an idea other people may actually buy into. Credibility is crucial and people like quick assurances. It's like having a degree from an Ivy League school.

Cool idea. Keeping the interface very simple is essential, but you might consider adding some config within the app instead of relying on setup within the Contacts app. So, maybe add a ... button to the top of each contact where a popup window could be used to select the call action or to exclude that contact from the list altogether. You might also try Text to Speech to say the contact's name after a slight delay. Good luck! I think this could be very useful.