4 ms·

Show HN: Senu – private, secondary phone numbers for online use

5 points by akosp 7y ago

akosp 7y ago
We've got increasingly worried about giving away my personal phone number for all the online services out there. These services often handle phone numbers carelessly or they willingly misuse this information for other purposes (like building social graphs). In addition, when your personal phone number inevitably leaks, fraudsters often use this information to hijack sms messages and take over your online accounts. So, we created Senu. Senu provides you secure, private phone numbers you can use for your online accounts. Incoming text messages arrive to your phone in the form of secure push notifications. You keep your personal number safe. Also, as an added convenience feature, authentication codes are automatically recognized in incoming messages, and are offered in the UI for copy and paste. Senu does not require your real email address or phone number to sign up. Install the app, start it and that's it: your phone is the key to your account. This way your Senu account is not tied to your email/personal number, meaning even if those get compromised, attackers cannot take over your Senu numbers. Please let us know what you think!
cerberusss 7y ago
Vey interesting, especially now that big websites such as Twitter force you to give your phone number. Others coerce you in not-so-subtle ways ("because of security!!1!" -- Facebook). No matter that sooner or later, criminals will have them. I'm looking forward to Senu expanding outside the US.
- akosp 7y ago
  Absolutely. I received a message a couple of days ago from IDNotify (an identity monitoring service) that my phone number has been found in a public database. And the troubling part is that I can't really do much about it, as changing my primary, personal phone number to something else is not feasible.
HalfYawn 7y ago
While I encourage services like these, I'm very nervous about their own security. I'm looking forward for a big player to enter this market. Maybe Twilio?
- akosp 7y ago
  Totally understand, and thank you for the feedback! Do you think that there is anything that would help building up trust? More details on how Senu works? Details on the background of the team? A technical whitepaper? Something else?

5 points by akosp 7y ago

We've got increasingly worried about giving away my personal phone number for all the online services out there. These services often handle phone numbers carelessly or they willingly misuse this information for other purposes (like building social graphs). In addition, when your personal phone number inevitably leaks, fraudsters often use this information to hijack sms messages and take over your online accounts. So, we created Senu. Senu provides you secure, private phone numbers you can use for your online accounts. Incoming text messages arrive to your phone in the form of secure push notifications. You keep your personal number safe. Also, as an added convenience feature, authentication codes are automatically recognized in incoming messages, and are offered in the UI for copy and paste. Senu does not require your real email address or phone number to sign up. Install the app, start it and that's it: your phone is the key to your account. This way your Senu account is not tied to your email/personal number, meaning even if those get compromised, attackers cannot take over your Senu numbers. Please let us know what you think!

cerberusss 7y ago

Vey interesting, especially now that big websites such as Twitter force you to give your phone number. Others coerce you in not-so-subtle ways ("because of security!!1!" -- Facebook). No matter that sooner or later, criminals will have them. I'm looking forward to Senu expanding outside the US.

akosp 7y ago
Absolutely. I received a message a couple of days ago from IDNotify (an identity monitoring service) that my phone number has been found in a public database. And the troubling part is that I can't really do much about it, as changing my primary, personal phone number to something else is not feasible.

HalfYawn 7y ago

While I encourage services like these, I'm very nervous about their own security. I'm looking forward for a big player to enter this market. Maybe Twilio?

akosp 7y ago
Totally understand, and thank you for the feedback! Do you think that there is anything that would help building up trust? More details on how Senu works? Details on the background of the team? A technical whitepaper? Something else?