5 ms·

Growing up with cellphones was bad enough. Kids need their space. Whereoscope has made the lives of lots of kids slightly worse.

dennisgorelik 16y ago
I don't think kids would care. Not only kids -- adults care about privacy less and less every year.
- olalonde 16y ago
  As a kid, I had much more to hide than as an adult - especially from my parents.
  - mickdj 16y ago
    Privacy levels are changing but most kids would love to get an iphone in exchange for letting their parents know where they are. That's the feedback we're getting from them so far!
    - liedra 16y ago
      The reason you're getting this feedback is because they don't know what it really means! What you think you're hearing: Kids don't mind being monitored. What you're really hearing: Kids want an iPhone. You're creating an illusion of personal choice that just doesn't exist.
andreyf 16y ago
Don't underestimate kids. They've been battling parents for control for centuries. The average 13 year old will find 10 ways of cheating the system in the first day of having it. Three categories come to mind: 1. Stupid way: lie and give your phone to a friend while you go to your boyfriend's house, 2. Social engineer: turn it off every other day, telling your parents 'my phone just keeps crashing since you installed this virus on it. And how do you know it's not sending my location to hackers?' 3. And some of them might even be inspired enough to learn some real hacking: this will encourage a generation of hackers into hackerdom. Technology might advance quickly, but human relationships stay more or less the same.
- dman 16y ago
  Step 1) edit /etc/hosts to serve the whereoscope website locally Step 2) Run local server to serve doctored version of whereoscope showing yourself in a safe location. Step 3) Party.
  - gojomo 16y ago
    Let's apply to YC Winter'11 with this product.
- jamesg 16y ago
  Totally! I think there's probably always going to be ways that these sorts of systems will be evaded; it's just the nature of the beast with computer systems. What we're hoping we'll be able to do though is to build this in such a way that there's value to the kids as well as the parents. If the choice is between getting an annoying phone-call everyday to ask where you are and having this app, I think for all the times when the kid isn't doing something malicious, they'll prefer to just have the app. Similarly the app lets kids locate their parents as well -- this can be handy if they're waiting for a lift for example. The last line of defence is that we plan to build in features to tell parents when the app has been disabled by the kid. Saying that the app has crashed is one thing, but if that results in an angry phone call telling them to start it up again -- even if it has just crashed -- I think kids will be less inclined to keep playing that card. Awesome feedback though. Keep it coming, dudes!
  - borisk 16y ago
    Bye bye, GPS - http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35801 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35801
  - plinkplonk 16y ago
    "The last line of defence is that we plan to build in features to tell parents when the app has been disabled by the kid. Saying that the app has crashed is one thing, but if that results in an angry phone call telling them to start it up again -- even if it has just crashed -- I think kids will be less inclined to keep playing that card." So in other words you do plan to (help parents) invade kids privacy even when the kids actively don't want their parents to know where they are. The word "defence" in that sentence is pretty revealing - your frame of perception seems to be that of a battle between kids trying to get away from your app and parents who don't want them to. Your " kid who want to see how far away their mother is when she's coming to pick them up," scenario doesn't need this feature. "We, like you, hate the idea of abusing trust and privacy. However, children who want their parents to know when they're getting home from soccer practise, or see how far away their mother is when she's coming to pick them up, is quite a different scenario." Yeah that's why kids can't turn the app off without letting their parents know ;-). "We, like you, hate the idea of abusing trust and privacy." is very believable, given that feature ;-) I guess it is all right (must be a dumb kid who'd accept such a poison pill gift ) as long as there is no sugarcoating involved and everyone (including the kids) knows what they are getting into. The latter (kids knowing what they are getting into is somewhat dubious). Somewhat slimy product in my personal opinion, but hey if it makes money I can't blame you for trying to get some. Next step: Spouse tracking so you know they aren't having an affair on the side. ;-) Next step: Employee tracking so you know how much time they are spending by the watercooler or the coffeeshop or whether they are really attending the tech conference your company sponsored , or even if any two employees are spending time in each other's bedrooms. As I said it must be a dumb person who'd accept this kind of un-switch-offable- without-warning-Big-Brother app on his or her phone. No different from an electronic monitoring device (as mandated by law for people under house arrest say) as long as you want to use your phone. The only difference is that it isn't strapped to you. If you could somehow add a breathalyzer to the IPhone you could broadcast the alcohol content in your blood to your parents. How about letting your parents know how long and when you spoke to whom? Maybe add some speech recognition to catch any "dirty language". All unswitch off able of course! Surely there's an app for that!

dennisgorelik 16y ago

I don't think kids would care. Not only kids -- adults care about privacy less and less every year.

olalonde 16y ago
As a kid, I had much more to hide than as an adult - especially from my parents.
- mickdj 16y ago
  Privacy levels are changing but most kids would love to get an iphone in exchange for letting their parents know where they are. That's the feedback we're getting from them so far!
  - liedra 16y ago
    The reason you're getting this feedback is because they don't know what it really means! What you think you're hearing: Kids don't mind being monitored. What you're really hearing: Kids want an iPhone. You're creating an illusion of personal choice that just doesn't exist.

andreyf 16y ago

Don't underestimate kids. They've been battling parents for control for centuries. The average 13 year old will find 10 ways of cheating the system in the first day of having it. Three categories come to mind: 1. Stupid way: lie and give your phone to a friend while you go to your boyfriend's house, 2. Social engineer: turn it off every other day, telling your parents 'my phone just keeps crashing since you installed this virus on it. And how do you know it's not sending my location to hackers?' 3. And some of them might even be inspired enough to learn some real hacking: this will encourage a generation of hackers into hackerdom. Technology might advance quickly, but human relationships stay more or less the same.

dman 16y ago
Step 1) edit /etc/hosts to serve the whereoscope website locally Step 2) Run local server to serve doctored version of whereoscope showing yourself in a safe location. Step 3) Party.
- gojomo 16y ago
  Let's apply to YC Winter'11 with this product.
jamesg 16y ago
Totally! I think there's probably always going to be ways that these sorts of systems will be evaded; it's just the nature of the beast with computer systems. What we're hoping we'll be able to do though is to build this in such a way that there's value to the kids as well as the parents. If the choice is between getting an annoying phone-call everyday to ask where you are and having this app, I think for all the times when the kid isn't doing something malicious, they'll prefer to just have the app. Similarly the app lets kids locate their parents as well -- this can be handy if they're waiting for a lift for example. The last line of defence is that we plan to build in features to tell parents when the app has been disabled by the kid. Saying that the app has crashed is one thing, but if that results in an angry phone call telling them to start it up again -- even if it has just crashed -- I think kids will be less inclined to keep playing that card. Awesome feedback though. Keep it coming, dudes!
- borisk 16y ago
  Bye bye, GPS - http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35801 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35801
- plinkplonk 16y ago
  "The last line of defence is that we plan to build in features to tell parents when the app has been disabled by the kid. Saying that the app has crashed is one thing, but if that results in an angry phone call telling them to start it up again -- even if it has just crashed -- I think kids will be less inclined to keep playing that card." So in other words you do plan to (help parents) invade kids privacy even when the kids actively don't want their parents to know where they are. The word "defence" in that sentence is pretty revealing - your frame of perception seems to be that of a battle between kids trying to get away from your app and parents who don't want them to. Your " kid who want to see how far away their mother is when she's coming to pick them up," scenario doesn't need this feature. "We, like you, hate the idea of abusing trust and privacy. However, children who want their parents to know when they're getting home from soccer practise, or see how far away their mother is when she's coming to pick them up, is quite a different scenario." Yeah that's why kids can't turn the app off without letting their parents know ;-). "We, like you, hate the idea of abusing trust and privacy." is very believable, given that feature ;-) I guess it is all right (must be a dumb kid who'd accept such a poison pill gift ) as long as there is no sugarcoating involved and everyone (including the kids) knows what they are getting into. The latter (kids knowing what they are getting into is somewhat dubious). Somewhat slimy product in my personal opinion, but hey if it makes money I can't blame you for trying to get some. Next step: Spouse tracking so you know they aren't having an affair on the side. ;-) Next step: Employee tracking so you know how much time they are spending by the watercooler or the coffeeshop or whether they are really attending the tech conference your company sponsored , or even if any two employees are spending time in each other's bedrooms. As I said it must be a dumb person who'd accept this kind of un-switch-offable- without-warning-Big-Brother app on his or her phone. No different from an electronic monitoring device (as mandated by law for people under house arrest say) as long as you want to use your phone. The only difference is that it isn't strapped to you. If you could somehow add a breathalyzer to the IPhone you could broadcast the alcohol content in your blood to your parents. How about letting your parents know how long and when you spoke to whom? Maybe add some speech recognition to catch any "dirty language". All unswitch off able of course! Surely there's an app for that!