Introduction
GliphMe lets you create a web link that anyone can use to start chatting with you on your iPhone or Android. When someone clicks one of your links and sends you a message, you will be notified by the Gliph app. You can reply immediately wherever you are from your mobile device. Gliphme is useful in a variety of cases online, and you can learn more at GliphMe’s explanation page.

How GliphMe Works with Screenshots
Here’s how it works: You start by creating a new GliphMe link using the menu in the Gliph iPhone, Android or web app. GliphMe appears just below the Bitcoin option.

The first time you enter the GliphMe Management view, you will see you already have one link created automatically. This link is used for invitations you send from Gliph in the recently revised Connections View. You will also see that you have the option, Create new GliphMe link.

When you tap that, you’re able to choose a public label for the link. This label will be shown to anyone who clicks on the link you’re creating. You should choose something relatively short that describes what the GliphMe conversation is about.

Some examples include:

• “Trek 4600 Mountain Bike For Sale”
• “Discussion on implications of the Snowden revelations”
• “Feedback on ‘Jazz Hands,’ the song I posted on SoundCloud”

Any links you create are listed in the GliphMe management view. You can tap on the information icon to view the GliphMe Link Details view. This view lets you revise the title and also gives you the ability to disable a given link.

Sharing Your GliphMe Link
On iOS, tapping a row from the GliphMe Management view automatically copies it to your clipboard. You can paste this link just about anywhere you want to offer a new channel of realtime communication with you. Here are just a few examples where it might make sense to share a GliphMe link:

• As part of a tweet. (Include the hashtag #gliphme, if you like)
• In your LinkedIn profile
• Over another different messaging app, such as Facebook messenger
• In an online advertisement
• In the signature line of your emails on Gmail.

The possibilities are nearly endless for where these links can be used, and we’re interested to hear back from you on what you find most useful. Please message the Support Gliph with your feedback.

What Happens When Someone Clicks a Link
When someone clicks a GliphMe contact link they are presented a chat box that lets them communicate with the link creator. First, Gliph prompts them to enter their name or nickname and asks them to optionally enter an email address as well.

If the respondent chooses to enter their email address, Gliph will send them a link they can click to resume the conversation even if they close the browser tab or window. It will also notify them 24 hours before the conversation is immediately deleted.

After they click or tap Start Chat, Gliph presents them with the following chat box:

When they type their first message in and send it, you, the creator, will get a push notification on your smartphone.

If you open the push notification, you’ll be taken to a typical Gliph Messaging Conversation view.  You’ll won’t be able to send photos to them, delay messages or attach Bitcoin until they sign up and solidify the Connection with you.

Respondents Coming from the Mobile Web
This tutorial showed screenshots of what it looks like when the respondent is coming in from the desktop web. GliphMe also works if someone taps a link on their smartphone. They are presented with a chat box in their mobile browser and can sign up and claim the conversation just the same as desktop users.

How Privacy and Connections are Handled in GliphMe
There are two sides to GliphMe links. The creator of the link, (who is a Gliph user already), and the respondent, who is probably not yet a Gliph user.

As a creator, when you get a message from a respondent, you are not connected at first. Even though you are chatting, Gliph does not display your gliph to the other user. None of your facets, (public or private), are shown in the GliphMe chat window the respondent sees.

The GliphMe chat webpage provides a sign up form that allows the respondent to continue a conversation with the link creator. If they sign up, Gliph automatically turns the conversation into a full Gliph Connection. This conversation will be the first they see in the Activity view when they first sign into the app.  At that time they will be able to see your Gliph and any public-facing facets.

Gliph automatically deletes conversations where the respondent does continue it by creating an account within 48 hours after they sent their first message to the creator. GliphMe conversation deletion follows the same rules as normal Gliph Messaging: the conversation is permanently removed from Gliph’s servers and not recoverable.

The reasoning for this auto-deletion is two-fold: one it reduces clutter in your activity view of conversations with people you don’t continue to stay in contact with and two it encourages new people to sign up for Gliph. (We believe the Gliph platform will be more useful with more people on it, so it is natural for the team to want to encourage new people to sign up.)

You can still delete a connection that is created when a respondent to one of your GliphMe links signs up and claims the conversation. Same rules apply to “normally” created connections, all previous messages between you and the respondent are deleted.

Caveats and Additional Information

GliphMe has some limitations. If the respondent to one of your GliphMe links is already a Gliph user, we can’t automatically convert that into a conversation between you two. What we recommend at this point, is that you ask that person what their Gliph is, and use the normal new connection capability in the Gliph Connect View.  (The little + button in the title bar of the Activity view)

You can delete a GliphMe link on iOS by swiping the link to the left and then tapping the Delete button. You can disable a GliphMe link without deleting it, by tapping the “i” and then flipping the Active toggle.

Conclusion
We’re excited about how the GliphMe link can be used to improve private and secure communications across the internet. We hope you’ll share some of your feedback on the new feature by sending us a message using the Support Gliph.

What happened

Our team first debuted Cloaked Email on August 14th, 2012. We created the product in part due to our own frustration with how Craigslist handled email privacy. We performed a survey and found that we weren’t the only ones who felt this way.

Previously, when you created a Craigslist post, their system would protect your email address in the listing itself. However, if you replied to someone who had emailed you about the old stereo you were selling, it would reveal your email address.

Gliph Cloaked Email solved this problem by protecting your email address across both ways of the exchange. It also allowed you to do it directly from your own personal inbox.

Beginning in November, we noticed Craigslist began testing an “anonymized relay” aka “email-relay” that offered similar functionality to Cloaked Email. After some testing, we were able to prove that their new service did not interfere with Cloaked Email.

However, at some point this spring, without notice, Craigslist began blocking email sent using Gliph Cloaked Email addresses as it passed back through their relay service. Then the system moved from optional to required for all ad listings where email addresses are automatically included.

Today, what happens is when someone responds to your ad listed by a user using Gliph Cloaked Email, it works the first time, going through both the Craigslist Email Relay and through Cloaked Email to your real inbox, but when the Gliph user replies, Craigslist does not pass the email on to the other person.

We contacted Craigslist and asked if they had blocked Gliph Cloaked Email, so we could get validation of the change. Craigslist either never received our inquiry or has chosen not to reply to us.

For the record, we love Craigslist and think it is very important peer to peer marketplace. We’re humbled that Craigslist seemed to think email privacy Gliph demonstrated was important enough to implement their own system.

We hope whatever changes Craigslist made were not done to single out Cloaked Email users, but rather to protect and improve the experience for all Craigslist users. But it sure would have been nice if they had just communicated that.

So now what?

First, don’t let this get you down. You can still use Cloaked Email with Craigslist, you just have to do it a bit differently than before:

When you list an ad on Craigslist, you have the option of choosing “use craigslist mail relay” or “no replies to this email, please.” You must choose “no replies to this email, please.” Here’s a screenshot of what that looks like:

Then in the listing, you must give your cloaked email address directly in the ad. For example, you should say: “please contact me by email at banana43@cloak.gli.ph.”

Potential buyers will still be able to contact you, and your replies will still be delivered as expected and you’ll get basically the same experience as before.

We are also recommending that Craigslist users change their account email address back to their normal email address. That way if you forget to enter your cloaked email in the ad listing, you will still be able to communicate with potential buyers.

We realize that not all Cloaked Email users will like this new requirement for using Cloaked Email on Craigslist and we’re sorry for the inconvenience.

The good news is that Cloaked Email still works great on services like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, bulletin boards, and coupon sites across the internet. We know many people depend on Cloaked Email and are proud that it continues to protect privacy on the internet.

If you haven’t, you may also want to read about why we added Bitcoin or how to use Bitcoin with the updated Gliph Android app.

Getting Started with Bitcoin on Gliph’s iOS Application
Step 1: You need a Coinbase account. Coinbase is a web-based Bitcoin wallet that you use to keep your Bitcoin in. When you send Bitcoin on Gliph, the actual transfers are done between Coinbase wallets seamlessly in the background.

We highly recommend you register with Coinbase using a Gliph Cloaked Email address. Currently, Coinbase reveals your email address to other users when you send money using their system. Use Cloaked Email to protect your privacy!

Step 2: You need to connect your Gliph account to your Coinbase account. We call this “attaching” your wallet to your Gliph account. To do this you need to tap on the menu button and then choose the Bitcoin option. If you don’t see the Bitcoin option, you may need force-close and restart your app. From then on, it should appear for you.

Attaching your Bitcoin wallet is fairly straight forward. Enter your Coinbase account details and hit the Authorize button. This should refresh and show your Bitcoin wallet right there in the app.

Step 3: You are ready to start sending Bitcoin! You can send Bitcoin with any connection on Gliph that also has their Bitcoin wallet set up. It helps if one of you has Bitcoin in your wallets to send, so we recommend you either use Coinbase’s ACH transfer or transfer Bitcoin in from another wallet to get going.

Here’s how to send Bitcoin: in the Conversation View, tap the arrow button to reveal a new option, “Attach Coins.”  This reveals a new dialog that lets you attach Bitcoin to the message.

Once you’ve chosen how much Bitcoin to attach, you can tap in an accompanying message, add a photo or just hit send and the Bitcoin will be transferred to your connection.

Don’t forget that we also offer this same feature on the mobile web, which is accessible from any modern browser at https://gli.ph/m.

Bitcoin burning a hole in your e-wallet? With a growing number of craigslist sellers stating they’ll trade in Bitcoin, we thought we’d share a fun snapshot of what you can buy on craigslist with Bitcoin in Portland, on Monday, April 8th, 2013. Prices calculated at current $184 / 1 BTC.

Many cities on Craigslist have stuff for sale in exchange for Bitcoin. At the time of our snapshot it appeared Los Angeles has the largest number of different sellers. Austin is distinguished in that it is the only city selling not one, but two different types of fertilized chicken eggs available in exchange for Bitcoin:

• Los Angeles (Lakers tickets)
• Austin (Chicken Eggs)
• Seattle (1995 Ford Mustang)
• New York (Chess sets)
• San Francisco (Infant swing)

Update: Hello Digg and other folks. Gliph is a technology startup based in Portland, Oregon. If this is your first time hearing about Gliph, welcome!

Gliph is a digital identity platform that lets you send secure messages and complete transactions with people.  You can download our iPhone or Android app. We also have a great mobile web application.  You can follow the company on twitter @gli_ph.

Something awesome you can do right now with Gliph is protect your email address from spammers and scammers using Cloaked Email. Try it out!

Today we’re unveiling the first versions of Gliph plugins for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.

These handy new extensions help you create and send new emails from your Cloaked Email addresses, and make adding privacy to Craigslist and other websites easy. If you aren’t familiar with Cloaked Email, take a moment to review this blog entry.

How to Install the Gliph Chrome Extension

1. Visit the Gliph Chrome Extension page in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Click the Add To Chrome button.
3. You should now see the Gliph icon in the top right corner in the Chrome browser.

How to Install Gliph Firefox Add-on

1. Visit the the Gliph Firefox Add-on page on the Firefox Add-ons website.
2. Click the Add To Firefox button.
3. You should now see the Gliph icon in the bottom right corner of the Firefox browser window.

Send a Cloaked Email
Click this item to open a new window to email anyone from your Cloaked Email address. There is a drop-down menu item that allows you to choose the Cloaked Email address you want the new email to be sent from. Notice that the label you gave the cloak appears in the parenthesis after the address. You can update your labels by visting the Cloaked Email administration page and editing your cloaks.

Send Attachments via Account Upgrade

You can upgrade Cloaked Email on your account to allow you to send file attachments directly from the browser plugin.  For more information on upgrading your Gliph account, read this blog post.  Here is a screenshot of what that looks like:

Reply to a Craigslist Ad

The Gliph Chrome Extension also adds items to your right-click context menu. When

you are viewing a Craigslist ad, you can now right-click an email address and choose a specific Cloaked Email address to reply from.  When you do, the extension creates a new email window with the Subject pulled from the ad and a link to the ad automatically added to the listing.

Pencil, Bird, Dice

Gliph is a growing community of people. Knowing that real people are using Gliph every day is what makes the service more fun and valuable for everyone. To help keep a human face on our increasing population, we’ll occasionally be featuring a Gliph user with an interview in the company blog.

One of Gliph’s users, Kyle Gray, reached out to the  Support Gliph a few weeks ago with a question and after a few conversations we decided to invite Kyle to take the first spot for the Gliph User Profile.

Gliph: How did you hear about Gliph?
Kyle Gray: I read about Gliph from an online tech site, which told me about the new feature of cloaked email, which I found would be pretty useful!

G: What made you want to sign up?
KG: I found out about the cloaked email, and I use a lot of online services, which gets me a lot of email. I thought using one of these emails would be a great idea for site such as Craigslist or even just normal sign up sites, like twitter or Facebook

G: Why did you choose the artifacts (symbols) that make up your gliph?
KG: My Gliph is:

Here’s why: I love to write and read; I am a avid twitter user, I tweet a lot and this makes up my online presence and I like playing different games.

G: What are your favorite parts of Gliph?
KG: I love the fact that I can just tweet my “Gliph” and then talk about different things anonymously with other users. Also, the cloaked email made the app for me. It is a really excellent and thoughtful way to utilize anonymity.

G:  What kinds of services do you use with Cloaked Email?
KG: I no longer have to worry about my personal email, which is a Gmail, getting loads of emails I don’t care about, because cloaked email gives me the option to simply throw away, much like a throwaway account on reddit, the email, and then no one can contact me through that email and I don’t have to get a new email address.

I have use my cloaked email for Craigslist, so I don’t have I worry about spammers, I’ve used it for GameCenter on iOS, where I just give out the cloaked email and then I can have people add me. Now I’ve switched my Facebook account over to a cloaked email, so I don’t worry about them collecting more information on me.

G: What sets Gliph apart from other services and apps that you’re aware of?
KG: I have never seen or tried an app that does so much with anonymity as Gliph. The only thing I could compare Gliph to is its similar function to Google Voice. Google Voice gives you a phone number that you can link to different phone numbers, where you can block unwanted contacts or spammers, and filter different people from talking to you. Gliph Cloaked Email is like Google Voice for email!

G:. Are you a student, or do you work regularly? (What do you do?)
KG: I am a student that works a part time job.

G: What are your hobbies or interests?
KG: I love technology, I am an avid graphics designer, dealing with photoshop and other tools for web designing. I love music, singing and playing various instruments.

G: If you could add a feature to Gliph, what would it be?
KG: I think that I would add where you could add some personality to your cloaked email, but I do like how it generates them. Like cloud42@cloak.gli.ph for example. Also, clients on more platforms could open it up to more people.

G:  Have you had any interesting or odd experiences on Gliph that you would like to share?
KG: Not particularly, but I’ve had random people add me on Game Center who I don’t even know, because i have a Cloaked Email on it, I’m not afraid to just give it out to anyone.

G: Anything else you’d like to share?
KG: I want to thank the Gliph team for giving an awesome response to questions and suggestions I’ve had. Also thank you for this amazing service, where can I donate?!

–

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, feedback and super-suave photo, Kyle! You touched on some great ideas that the Gliph team is thinking about a lot. Kyle also mentioned in a follow-up that other Gliph users are welcome to send him connection requests to his Gliph. So feel free to reach out and say hello!

Click hear for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Cloaked Email

Please note: Cloaked Email does not encrypt your email. It hides your real email address from the other user and allows you to block email from unwanted senders.

How Gliph Cloaked Email Works
Cloaked Email works in any client, including Gmail and Outlook. It works with Microsoft Exchange Server mail, and with Blackberry devices.

Getting Started
1.  Begin by claiming a Gliph. If you haven’t claimed a Gliph yet, here’s a video that explains how to do so. If you have one and forgot either your password or your Gliph, tap Help Me on this page.

2.  Tap the Cloaked Email button in the top left corner of the Activity View.

3.  Confirm your account’s email address facet by tapping the Confirm button.  You’ll need to go to your email inbox and click the confirmation link.  Once you’ve done that, your complimentary first cloak is unlocked as shown.    

4.  Tap Get New Cloak. You can tap the circular arrow to refresh the cloak until you get one that you like. There are roughly 2000 nouns, so it’s a little like “door number one, door number two or door number three,” isn’t it?  Fun times!

Next, add a label to your cloak.  For example, if you wanted to isolate your eBay account you might label it as shown in this screenshot.  If you want to protect your privacy on Craigslist, call it “Craigslist Cloak.” Tap Create.

Using Your Cloak
Each cloak you create will have its own page that lets you change the label, send new email from the cloak, administer conversations and discard the cloak.

• Give out your cloak – You can now give out your cloak to websites, services or even to retailers like Nordstrom who offer to “email you a receipt.”
• Send a new email from your Cloak – There are three ways to send new email from a cloak:
  1. Use the Gliph browser extension for Chrome or Firefox.  (Desktop only)
  2. Use the Mobile Web, (Desktop, Android, and iPhone)
  3. Use the iPhone app.
• Get More Cloaks and Enable Attachments
  If you want more cloaks, you can purchase them on the web and in the iPhone app. Read more about buying cloaks here. You can earn free cloaks by inviting people to Gliph. Your account is upgraded after after you’ve successfully invited five people.

                    

• Administer Your Cloak –  As you use your cloak more and more, you’ll interact with a lot of people who are not on Gliph.  Your cloak keeps track of who you’ve emailed with and lets you both block them (if you don’t want email from them anymore) or invite them to Gliph (if you want to keep talking over Gliph Messaging).
• Discard Your Cloak – Once you’re ready to get rid of a cloak, you can discard it.  All new email will simply not be delivered to your account.  The email will not bounce, it just goes into a black hole.  Note that discarded cloaks are not recoverable.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to learn about Cloaked Email.  We hope you find it as useful as we do!   You can email me (Rob, co-founder of Gliph) at revolve70@cloak.gli.ph.

Respondents were recruited from Twitter and Facebook, and the data was collected using Survey Monkey. The analysis is based on these graphs only and more data might need to be collected for a more solid conclusion.

If you haven’t tried Gliph yet, we have a beautiful mobile web implementation you can use from this very browser.  And of course, iPhone and Android versions as well. On with the data!

Communicating on Craigslist

1.  What devices do you use to access Craigslist?

This question allowed “choose all that apply.” It looks like Craigslist is still predominantly used via desktops.  This may be due, in part, to the fact that Craigslist is still does not offer a mobile-optimized version of their website.  The large number of tablet-users may suggest some level of early-adopter bias in our respondent pool.

2.  When communicating with someone who is selling an item on Craigslist, which type of email account do you use most frequently?

The vast majority of people are using their personal email address to handle Craigslist transactions. Few use (or are willing to admit they use) their work address for listing or responding to ads. Note that 12% of people are using a special email address just for Craigslist transactions. That’s a lot of ‘extra’ email accounts!

3.  When you communicate by phone with someone who is selling an item on Craigslist, which type of phone do you use most frequently?

Most people are using their mobile phone to handle phone communications on Craigslist sales. A small portion of folks are handling their transactions entirely by email.

4.  Approximately how many back-and-forth interactions do you have per purchase on Craigslist? (A back-and-forth interaction means you contact a seller and they contact you back. For example: asking dimensions of a table and getting that information back from the seller.)

More than half of Craigslist transactions are completed with just two interactions or four total emails, phone calls or texts. Few transactions require more than ten total interactions.

5.  If you could have a temporary, anonymous phone number that forwarded to your regular phone, what impact would this have on your overall Craigslist experience?

65% of respondents felt the Craigslist experience would be better if they had access to a temporary number in handling their Craigslist interactions.  Many solutions exist to handle this today, but nothing is offered by Craigslist.

6.  If you could have a temporary, anonymous email address that kept your regular email secret across the entire exchange, what impact would this have on your overall Craigslist experience?

Almost 79% of respondents felt a temporary anonymous email that protects anonymity across the entire exchange would improve the experience somewhat or a great amount.

This is both a problem and an opportunity. Email was never intended to provide anonymity. Yet it is the primary method of communication around Craigslist ads.

Update 8/14/12: We’re pumped to announce a new email privacy tool that protects anonymity across the entire exchange.  Gliph Cloaked Email™ is now available on all Gliph accounts.

Privacy on Craigslist

We also asked a variety of questions related to sentiment toward privacy on Craigslist. Specifically, we asked how much or how little do people agree with the following statements:

7.  I am able to protect my personal information when buying an item from Craigslist.

Few people feel strongly either way about their ability to protect the privacy of their personal information while buying on Craigslist.

8.  I trust the people that sell items on Craigslist.

We’re very interested in the concept of trust in peer to peer marketplace like this and how Gliph could help improve it in the future.

9.  I do not want strangers to have my email address.

Despite a fairly even view of trustworthiness of unknown Craigslist users, about 61% of people do not want strangers in general to have their email address.

10.  I do not want strangers to have my phone number.

People feel even more strongly about the privacy of their phone number than they do their email. 73.5% do not want strangers to have their phone numbers. This syncs with the real-world implications. A phone call or text message is generally far more of an interruption and potential invasion of privacy than an inbound email.

11.  When purchasing an item from Craigslist, I prefer not to provide the seller with my full name.

Almost 63% of people want to make purchases without revealing their complete name.

12.  I worry that a Craigslist seller may misuse my personal information.

This seems to be the most normal distribution of responses we received in this series. If you position this response next to question 8, there should be some correlation.  If you trust a craigslist user, you do not have to worry about them misusing your personal information.

13.  I have felt uncomfortable or threatened during an interaction with a Craigslist seller.

Fortunately, among those surveyed only 17% have had troubling interactions with other Craigslist users. Two thirds of people seem to have had no problems in Craigslist sales.

14.  A Craigslist seller has used my email address or phone number to contact me for a reason other than the current purchase.

Despite a desire to keep email addresses and phone numbers private, only one in ten people believe that their history of revealing such information has resulted in unwanted contact.

15.  I feel safe using Craigslist.

People largely feel safe using Craigslist.

16.  I wish Craigslist purchases could be conducted anonymously.

The shape of this graph closely matches that of response to question 11, which asked about people’s confort in sharing their first and last name.

Despite feeling safe using Craigslist and relatively few bad experiences, over half us respondents want to stay anonymous.

Thank you!

We hope you enjoyed these simple data visualizations from our survey research. We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our survey. We think there is an opportunity to expand on this initial research and would welcome a deeper or more scientific look at privacy and anonymity preferences on Craigslist.   Please contact us if you do!

In case you were curious, the following locations were among those represented in the survey: Albany, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Washington DC, Hampton Roads, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Orange County, Orlando, Portland OR, Rochester, San Francisco, South Florida and St. Louis.