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This looks like a great tool.. but for these kind of sites, I always feel uncomfortable to signup and then store my personal information in their databases. I c

This looks like a great tool.. but for these kind of sites, I always feel uncomfortable to signup and then store my personal information in their databases. I could easily end up giving them my personal ideas and my professional work related stuff.. We really don't know who is looking at our data on other side and what kinda security measures(if any) they are taking to secure the same. Your thoughts?

rayhano 14y ago
Interesting point about privacy. Does anyone else have similar concerns? I am of the opinion that life is too short to worry, plus people generally aren't able to steal ideas. Execution is always very different. Look at the Xerox-Apple-Microsoft implementations of GUIs... All very different. My ideas start on napkins or Notes on the iPhone, get translated to Workflowy and then fully drafted and edited into a blog post: http://rayhano.com http://rayhano.com The hope is others take the ideas and use them with their own. Ideas should be free, only then can society benefit.
- atul_wired 14y ago
  Sharing explicitly versus gaining access to your data are completely separate things. Moreover, how about pushing your professional data to these sites? I don't want to use separate tools for ideas which I'm fine if someone steals them and which not..
cagey 14y ago
A valid point. I've been using Workflowy for a few months (I'm a long-time "outliner aficionado" who has happily jumped into using this tool with both feet due to some HN postings), and when it comes to entering work/professional data, I make small efforts to obfuscate key items. But some cannot be obfuscated w/o invalidating the content itself... I haven't been sufficiently concerned/motivated to investigate their privacy policy further. [edit:] https://workflowy.com/privacy/ https://workflowy.com/privacy/ may raise concerns; I need to review this policy later (and compare it to those of other free services such as Google which I also use).

rayhano 14y ago

Interesting point about privacy. Does anyone else have similar concerns? I am of the opinion that life is too short to worry, plus people generally aren't able to steal ideas. Execution is always very different. Look at the Xerox-Apple-Microsoft implementations of GUIs... All very different. My ideas start on napkins or Notes on the iPhone, get translated to Workflowy and then fully drafted and edited into a blog post: http://rayhano.com http://rayhano.com The hope is others take the ideas and use them with their own. Ideas should be free, only then can society benefit.

atul_wired 14y ago
Sharing explicitly versus gaining access to your data are completely separate things. Moreover, how about pushing your professional data to these sites? I don't want to use separate tools for ideas which I'm fine if someone steals them and which not..

cagey 14y ago

A valid point. I've been using Workflowy for a few months (I'm a long-time "outliner aficionado" who has happily jumped into using this tool with both feet due to some HN postings), and when it comes to entering work/professional data, I make small efforts to obfuscate key items. But some cannot be obfuscated w/o invalidating the content itself... I haven't been sufficiently concerned/motivated to investigate their privacy policy further. [edit:] https://workflowy.com/privacy/ https://workflowy.com/privacy/ may raise concerns; I need to review this policy later (and compare it to those of other free services such as Google which I also use).