Do you know what you share?

In all honestly, we no longer know. Thanks to the myriad of networks and services we subscribe every day, we have lost perspective and control. TheWriteID will create a service aimed at giving you back this perspective and putting you back in control of all the information you have left scattered across various networks and services.

We bet you have the need to manage your profile data and the networks and services you use. TheWriteID will allow you to do just that.

Show your support and sign our petition if you want this too.

Manifest

This text is about you. And by you, I mean the real you; in all its offline, online and mobile forms.

We all have multiple identities. They are rich, represent us and are all somehow unique.

Some are pretty accurate, some are fictional, others are outdated. Others we wish we’d never had. In fact, what we share is who we are.

The weird thing is, we don’t feel like our identities belong to us. Mostly we share our identity in return for something. Whether it is when we are subscribing to a newsletter, signing up for a social network or buying something online. The two main reasons for sharing our identity are identification and authentication, we use them to get access to something. It’s these kinds of interactions that have transformed the web from a group of connected devices to a network of connected people. Unavoidably, with the advent of the connected self comes the need to manage one’s reputation.

Of course, we are aware of that in order to receive, we need to share.

But who knows exactly what we are sharing. And after all these years, where are you sharing what?

Are you still the same person? We tend to believe that people don’t change but if we look closer, we all have to admit we do. An identity is likely to evolve, our interests also change. We show different aspects of our identity, dependent on the setting we’re in. For example we might share pictures of our children on Facebook, but not on Linkedin.

All these networks, tools and services make our lives more convenient. They keep on popping up, and every time we have to identify ourselves again and again.

TheWriteID is all about putting people back in control of their identity – Knowing WHAT you share and WHERE you share it.

We will give control over identification, authentication, representation, pseudonymity and reputation, back to it’s rightful owner, which is YOU. We will act responsibly and respect your privacy. We will not sell or give your data to any other company, not even to monetize our service.

Help us make TheWriteID the place where you KNOW WHAT YOU SHARE and WHERE you share it.

With your support, we can make TheWriteID a success. So sign our petition & spread the word. Let’s change the way identity is used on the Internet. Let’s write history. Together.

Thanks,


Tim (@TheWriteID).

 

Sign our petition #112 people signed the petition already. Become one of them.

FAQ

 

Why will this project succeed?

We are focused on our core value proposition, which we are bringing to life together with true enthusiasts. We are convinced that we are creating a solution that fits both users’ and services’ needs. Our focus is user-friendliness, build simplicity and a secure & scalable architecture.
We are supported by a growing number of like-minded individuals who are more and more conscientious of what they share and where they are sharing it
We want TheWriteID to be free to use and are working hard to make it so.

 

Do you really think networks & services will adopt this?

We definitely hope so. They mostly monetize and target their users/customers based on profile data. But profile data is seldom updated. We want to help them to keep profiles up-to-date and infuse them with additional information (e.g. interests), if a user chooses to do so.
Startups, small networks and services would also benefit from a trusted middleware that manages identification and authentication. We would reduce signup and maintenance hassle, making a test drive easier to do. We help them focus on the core of their business, which is building and delivering awesome products & services.
To put it very bluntly: We’re allies, not competitors.

 

Do you really think that people care about this?

People have ever-growing concerns about what personal details they share. They find outdated identities of themselves. Which as such is not a big problem, but it becomes one when it’s potentially harmful to their reputation. We also believe that people don’t know what services and networks they have signed up for any longer, let alone do they know what profile information they provided.
People need an easy-to-maintain tool that enables them to control and manage their own profile data and network subscriptions.

 

Doesn't this require mass adoption to work?

Yes and no. We can grow as we go along. Of course, a lot of users will strengthen our position towards networks and services. And we believe that we’ll soon be in the position to represent an awful lot of you out there ;-)

We also know networks and services keep on popping up, but no one can predict what will be the next Facebook. It’s a question of becoming the preferred and trusted identification and authentication partner worldwide. So we will be patient, and while we’re on our way to becoming that reference partner, we’ll continuously improve our service.

 

How secure will TheWriteID be?

It will be very secure. We're using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) & AES encryption. That means it’ll be distributed and you'll need about a zillion computers each checking a billion keys per second - so you'd still need around 2 billion years to crack it.

 

How will you convince the existing networks & services to enable TheWriteID?

We won’t. We hope you will. By signing our petition, telling the networks this is the right way forward, and by using our service once we launch it.

 

Why 'TheWriteID'?

We felt it’s the right name. TheWriteID is the right idea with the right proposition and it will ultimately be the right choice. And last but not least, it’s a story we write together, in full transparency.

 

Haven't there been other efforts like this before?

Yes, there have been. Big players such as Microsoft, Google and even Facebook are trying it. But as it’s not their core business and they aren’t independent, they can’t succeed.
OpenID was a really good attempt but failed to build a user base because it was too technically complex.
And then there are a variety of small services that claim(ed) to do the same but got lost in too many features or didn’t achieve traction nor critical mass.

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