alt Hacker NewsIn our earliest versions we experimented with a dead mans switch, but feedback was that folks would forget to reply to the monthly keep alive and we'd risk triggering too many false alarms. So we opted for picking trusted family members who you grant ongoing read only access. That way in an emergency, they already have the access they need to act.
We're 100% open to the idea of a dead man's switch, just want to find a way to avoid triggering too many false alarms. Any ideas on how to do that?
Replies
I built if-i-go-missing.com along these lines. Weird, I’m also a Brown!
Maybe an optional app? Send the keepalive email and alert the trusted family members when the app stops pinging back.
This would at least indicate that the phone is turned off or lost signal. All of this should be configurable by the user including thresholds before alert, reply timeout, etc.
I think expecting a ping from the app every 24h is a sensible default. Most people already "call to see if their phone is dead". This just automates it.
Optional feature, off by default, customizable time interval, and a warning about false alarms?
Even with that you'd likely still trigger false alarms regularly, though they would be the responsibility of the user. Not sure whether it would be a worthwhile tradeoff overall.