A privacy and security pledge

Update - <2022-10-18 Tue> - I just also found out about The Santa Clara Principles - it’s not exactly what I’m thinking about, but it’s interesting as a model and has input from the EFF, ACLU, and The Brennan Center for what it’s worth.

I’m thinking about building a piece of software…more than that actually. Been designing it for a while now and there are certain values I’m trying to bring to the project. Things to do with what I want and feel is right around privacy, data-ownership, security. Values that I want the software I buy and use to hold as well. It got me thinking that I’d like to sign some kind of pledge of user-goodwill on topics like these.

I found the Student Privacy Pledge 2020 and this resembles what I’m looking for “…a voluntary but legally binding industry pledge…”. I want the more broad version that goes beyond just students…and I want it vetted, or even better written, by a substantial data privacy advocate like the EFF.

Draft of something like the following, first from the users’ perspective and then followed by the statements I as a software company will agree to.

I, the user:

  • want to own my data
  • want to have a choice in the services where that data gets stored
  • want to have the option to only store data on my device
  • want to have any centralized data store with end-to-end encryption
  • want to know by sight that my data is encrypted in transit (bring green browser locks to mobile apps)
  • want to be able to sell access to my data and reap some benefit (discounts, pay, other perks)
  • want to be able to revoke that sale and know my data is destroyed
  • want to be able to specify the duration from 1 month to 1 year and beyond
  • want to control the marketplace for my data

I, the software maker agree to the demands above:

__

Jake Levine, Software Maker of the future

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Here’s how I currently do my work, both personal and professional.

  • iPad
  • Mac
    • Terminal with Oh-my-zsh for terminal-ly good looks (and shortcuts)
    • Doom Emacs - I wrote about doom emacs for blogging
    • Roon - Can’t work without music!
    • Visual Studio - replaced TextMate and SublimeText and haven’t looked back; strange for me to say that for a Microsoft product (different than say GitHub, which was an acquisition)
    • 1Password - long-time user
    • Trello - Despite the Atlassian acquisition, this is still my go-to for just a general purpose throw it up and track it. Using the Assista bot for time tracking on tickets I drag into the Doing list - it helps a lot with billable work, but also helps me track where my play time goes.
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    • Homebrew - I see no reason to leave this hardy package manager - it’s just worked under brutal conditions for years and years.
  • Home network
    • Fiber, it’s the only way to fly
    • Unifi network throughout house; wired (by hand, blood, dust, cobwebs, and pink spackle) and wireless
    • Pi-hole - remove all the craptasic stuff out there, network-wide
    • Tailscale - take my networks with me securely (recent addition so lots to learn)
  • SaaS
    • Cloudflare - it’s the only online service that I don’t have a fear of recommending. Yes, there might be some issues from the centralization of the decentralized web, but right now, that’s not a critical path issue.
    • Hugo - The most performant, flexible, and joyous web development platform. This site and my LLC and Synth company are built with it.