Category Archives: Consumer Security

Introducing Gliph Reputation

You can now set a rating for another person after you’ve completed a transaction with them using Gliph Marketplace. Ratings you’ve received from completing transactions on Gliph will now be recorded and displayed as an average on your Profile.

Reputation ratings allow you to build up credibility for your account on Gliph. You can use them to help you make a decision as to whether you trust someone before completing a transaction with them.

You must complete a transaction using a listing in Gliph Marketplace to be able to assign reputation.

This means if a Bitcoin payment is involved, you must have a Coinbase or Blockchain.info wallet attached and use Deal Flow to make the payment.

If you already completed a transaction in Gliph Marketplace, you should already have received  an email allowing you to rate the other person or people you’ve interacted with. Transactions completed outside Gliph Marketplace will not offer a chance to set Reputation.

Gliph Profiles continue to become more useful, showing off information about another user’s Marketplace listings, Groups and Channels in common, whether they have a Bitcoin Wallet attached and now the reputation. This information is in addition to the personal data they’ve chosen to share publicly or privately with you.

Gliph profile now shows reputation, marketplace listings and groups or channels in common, along with bitcoin wallet attachment status
This is a screen capture of the current live view of Cory’s Gliph Profile.

We’re excited to see Gliph identity coming into its own with so much useful information!

We’ll be monitoring Gliph reputation to prevent abuse and we plan to increase the depth of information available over time. If you haven’t, get a move on with listing something for sale in Gliph Marketplace to begin establishing your reputation today!

Gliph Adds Secure Group Messaging

Today we’re releasing secure group messaging for Gliph! We’re excited about this release for two reasons: Gliph users have been requesting group messaging and because group messaging is our first release to leverage the powerful improvements we made recently to the Gliph platform.

There are many group messaging apps to choose from, so what makes group messaging on Gliph unique?

  • Strong Identity Controls – Leverage Gliph’s unique privacy capabilities to show your real name to one group on Gliph, and a pseudonym to another.
  • Data impermanence / Deletion – Erase history by deleting any of your messages permanently from a group conversation, removing it for all group members.
  • Protection from Group Snooping – Keep your conversations completely private to you and your group members using Closed Groups in combination with Lockdown Privacy Protection.

It also has some terrific features that make it a great choice for all your Group messaging needs:

  • Cross-Platform – Include Android, iOS, and web users in your group conversations. Access the discussion from your mobile, tablet or desktop computer.
  • Group Profile Photos – Represent your group with a nice photo. (Admin set)
  • Group Notification Preferences – Choose whether to get notifications from any given group.
  • Group Invitation Links – Open groups have single links that allow people new to Gliph to sign up and automatically join your group.

These features also come with new System Messages, which helps show when someone has been invited to or removed from the group.

Group messaging has been requested by Gliph users for a long time, so we’re very pleased to bring it to market on all of Gliph’s clients. Enjoy!

How to Delete Messages on Gliph

One of the unique aspects of Gliph is that you can permanently delete messages and other data in the system. This blog entry explains how message deletion works on Gliph, how it is different from most messaging apps and why we believe the removal of data is part of a solid privacy experience.

What happens to Information We Put Online?
It is hard to understand what happens to data we store online. Every text we send, every picture that is transmitted, and every person we connect with is represented by data. This data is transmitted across the Internet and ultimately saved on one or many servers and sometimes multiple devices such as smartphones, desktop computers and laptops. What happens to this data?

Social platforms commonly offer “deletion” or “removal” features that make it appear that you can permanently remove stuff you have put online. Unfortunately, these services are often misrepresenting what actually happens with information.

For example, messaging services like GroupMe and Whatsapp offer to remove messages for you. But depending on the app, your unencrypted messages are saved in a database with a flag marked deleted. Services may be built in a way that they are unable to delete the message on the other person’s phone, instead only “hide” it from your end of the conversation.

For a long time, Facebook would not actually remove photos that you had deleted from your account. Now that Facebook has fixed their system, your photos actually be will be actually deleted within 30 days. Today, you can “Delete this Photo,” however Facebook’s platform may not actually delete it for weeks.

A lot of questions have been asked about how Snapchat handles removal of data. You send a photo to someone, and it is supposed to disappear within a short period of time. However, Snapchat has made it clear that images sent over the service will persist for up to 30 days or until all recipients of the image have opened the photo. More concerning to some is that snaps are not being removed properly from smartphones and can in fact be recovered.

Update (5/8/14): Snapchat settled charges from the FTC that it misrepresented how it was handling user data collection practices.

This is a pretty big problem, since if you don’t have a background in Computer Science, you must rely on what you’re being told in the interface. If it says “Delete,” does that mean right now, forever, from everywhere?

Behind the Scenes on Message Deletion on the Gliph Platform
When we first introduced message deletion on the Gliph platform, our focus was on clarifying why Gliph deletes from both sides rather than allowing complete archiving. (Please see “Our Thinking on Message Deletion“). What follows in this entry is a more general overview of what Gliph is doing with deleted messages. Continue reading →

Introducing Selective Push, Privacy Protection for Push Notifications

Have you ever felt the need to turn your phone upside down so people won’t read a message in a push notification?

Today, in an update for iPhone and Android, we’re allowing you to choose which conversations you want to show up in push and which should stay locked up for viewing in the app.

So far, Gliph has only allowed push notifications to say “Someone sent you a message.” With this update, you can now choose to show the tag of who is sending you a message, and if you want, the content of the message as well.

Unique to Gliph, you can make these changes on a per-contact basis, meaning for one contact in Gliph you can show message content or tag in the push notifications, and for another show nothing at all.

Let’s look at an example, where another Gliph user you’re connected with and have tagged “Erin” sends you the message “Hey, what are you up to tonight?” The following three examples show how a Gliph Message push notification will appear using different settings:

 

How to Enable Message Content in Push Notifications on Gliph
Turning on message content in push notifications is just two taps from any conversation. We made a short video explanation of how to set up message content to show in push notifications. Here are written instructions:  Continue reading →

Gliph Opposes CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

At Gliph, we take a conservative view toward user privacy. Gliph’s privacy policy is clear: a Gliph user’s Facet information belongs to them and remains under their control. Gliph offers specific features that give users privacy in their personal communications.

Like many internet companies, Gliph is based in the United States and is governed by the laws of this country. Gliph respects the United States’ need to maintain national security. However, Gliph opposes CISPA as proposed because the legislation conflates cybersecurity with surveillance and information sharing. CISPA significantly erodes the privacy of internet users.

What is CISPA?
At the time of this writing, CISPA is H.R. 624, (web, pdf), the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. CISPA is just a bill, which is a proposed piece of legislation that has the potential to become a federal law in the United States.

CISPA’s purpose is to help the United States investigate cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyber attacks. The bill aims to add legal framework for the sharing of information between private companies and the United States government.

Why Oppose CISPA?
Gliph appreciates the pressing global context around cybersecurity, yet is adamant about the preservation of civil liberty and personal privacy. We are joining the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Internet Defense League in our opposition to this bill. You can learn about the below bulleted issues and more in the EFF’s page about the bill.

Here are some of the key issues with CISPA Gliph is concerned about: Continue reading →

Privacy Violations: Pollution of the Digital Revolution

Today’s Dropbox is a small but shining invention of our Digital Revolution. Technology startups are now designed to grow, and done successfully can be enormously profitable. Great software is empowering people by giving them efficient control over their social lives, financial plans, travel needs and health care in ways never before possible.

But the Digital Revolution is also introducing a new hazard with a wild and unpredictable impact: privacy violations.

The first drop box was invented by Robert Kay in 1760. It increased the speed and efficiency of fabric weaving and helped usher in the Industrial Revolution. For seventy years, advances in mechanics, chemistry and urbanization resulted in both unprecedented improvements to living standards and the foundation of the modern capitalist economy.

The swift change brought with it unintended consequences. Coal-burning factories choked citizens and darkened the sky with a mix of smoke and fog. In London, fatal outbreaks of Cholera resulted from draining raw sewage directly into the Thames. In Cleveland, oil refineries spilled crude into the Cuyahoga River causing it to catch fire three times in 1800s.

During the Industrial Revolution people paid the price of progress with the destruction of the environment. Today, we pay with our privacy. Continue reading →

Gliph Featured in Forrester Research Report on 2012 Consumer Security Dynamics and Growth Opportunities

Gliph Forrester Research Consumer Security LogosWe’re pleased to share that Gliph was included in a new report on Consumer Security by Forrester Research.

The report was written by Security and Risk analyst, Heidi Shey (@heidishey) and is titled: 2012 Consumer Security Market Landscape: Key Dynamics and Growth Opportunities.

The focus of the report is the changing dynamics of the consumer security market, including the proliferation of freeware and the “app internet.” In the United States, the consumer security market is dominated by Symantec, McAfee and AVG.

One important note from the report is the importance of Continue reading →