Drew over at Download Squad wrote a nice piece on our Blackberry release calling Dexrex the Gmail of SMS. Thanks Drew! He also brought up an interesting point:
"The obvious issue here is privacy, as it is with all web services. SMS messages can be uber private, for example: "d00d, thiz girl eez hawt". Do you want everyone in the world to see that? We don't. Dexrex has to prove themselves trustworthy." - Drew
Proving how trustworthy you are is always an interesting challenge. How do you do that? You can explain your motives, your practices, and your values. But, really trust has to be built over time, just like a reputation. Our business is personal data backup and banking, so building trust is a challenge we welcome and are proud to accept.
Drew is headed in the right direction in some ways though. We do plan to be a little similar to Gmail. But, we see some problems with the Gmail model too. Throughout the development of Dexrex, I’ve worked to make sure we always put an emphasis on personal ownership of data and the privacy of our users.
To start with, data on our servers is kept completely encrypted; we've put a lot of thought into building our system to be safe and secure. We've designed the service with the goal that no one except the people in a conversation will ever be able to read it without clear and explicit permission.
Now, I know I could talk about all sorts of other data encryption and security mechanisms, crazy database architecture, advanced privacy "opt-in" controls, or just try to hide behind fancy jargon and big words in the terms of service, but that isn't my style. Those things are just convenient ideas. The fact is that we know Dexrex can't succeed if we lose people's trust, even for a moment.
I really want to make one simple point: All my messages are in Dexrex too. I have six years of my personal life in our databases. Conversations with my family, friends, and super-secret business partners are all in the same system as our users. If anyone else on the Dexrex team could read my messages, I don't think I'd be allowed to work here anymore :) Suffice it to say that I don't want anything happening to Dexrex users' data that I’m not comfortable with happening to my own... and I’m a pretty private person. Believe me, if Dexrex ever does anything to breach its users' privacy, I'll be the first one to file suit. No special treatment. No exceptions.
But promises are only talk. I don't expect people to immediately trust us just because we might ask them to. As Drew said, "Dexrex has to prove themselves trustworthy." We work to do that every day.
- Derek
Co-Founder & CEO
"The obvious issue here is privacy, as it is with all web services. SMS messages can be uber private, for example: "d00d, thiz girl eez hawt". Do you want everyone in the world to see that? We don't. Dexrex has to prove themselves trustworthy." - Drew
Proving how trustworthy you are is always an interesting challenge. How do you do that? You can explain your motives, your practices, and your values. But, really trust has to be built over time, just like a reputation. Our business is personal data backup and banking, so building trust is a challenge we welcome and are proud to accept.
Drew is headed in the right direction in some ways though. We do plan to be a little similar to Gmail. But, we see some problems with the Gmail model too. Throughout the development of Dexrex, I’ve worked to make sure we always put an emphasis on personal ownership of data and the privacy of our users.
To start with, data on our servers is kept completely encrypted; we've put a lot of thought into building our system to be safe and secure. We've designed the service with the goal that no one except the people in a conversation will ever be able to read it without clear and explicit permission.
Now, I know I could talk about all sorts of other data encryption and security mechanisms, crazy database architecture, advanced privacy "opt-in" controls, or just try to hide behind fancy jargon and big words in the terms of service, but that isn't my style. Those things are just convenient ideas. The fact is that we know Dexrex can't succeed if we lose people's trust, even for a moment.
I really want to make one simple point: All my messages are in Dexrex too. I have six years of my personal life in our databases. Conversations with my family, friends, and super-secret business partners are all in the same system as our users. If anyone else on the Dexrex team could read my messages, I don't think I'd be allowed to work here anymore :) Suffice it to say that I don't want anything happening to Dexrex users' data that I’m not comfortable with happening to my own... and I’m a pretty private person. Believe me, if Dexrex ever does anything to breach its users' privacy, I'll be the first one to file suit. No special treatment. No exceptions.
But promises are only talk. I don't expect people to immediately trust us just because we might ask them to. As Drew said, "Dexrex has to prove themselves trustworthy." We work to do that every day.
- Derek
Co-Founder & CEO
4 comments:
Its not about being trustworthy.
When it comes to privacy, data needs to reside with the individual and NOT dexrex.
Who is Dexrex?
When Google launched Gmail the world condemned Gmail because Google would have access to your emails because of the search capabilities and this is Google we are talking about.
Jent,
You make an interesting point likening possession to privacy. However, I don’t think they are the same thing. The important thing which I think you are really getting at is control. And, I think trust is still a very important part of control and privacy.
I think this can pretty easily be illustrated by a little hypothetical: Suppose MySpaceMindy has a secret love note proving that FaceBookFred has a huge crush on her. She doesn't want to lose this gem and doesn't want others to find out. Maybe it was a fabulous poem filled with lots of XOXO's and <3's... Now suppose we give Mindy three places to keep her super secret love note: (1) in her back pocket, (2) in a folder labeled “Private” at the headquarters of the high school newspaper, (3) in a safety deposit box at the local bank.
I believe that if our Miss Mindy was really serious about her love note, she would want it at the bank. My reasoning is that banks are more trustworthy than both pockets and the school newspapers.
With respect to the world’s reaction to Gmail: although user adoption was pretty positive, regulatory reaction was cautious. The latter wasn’t in spite of the service being launched by Google, it was because it was being launched by Google. In the words of Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, “Google is an advertising company.” In that regard, they are very much like the above mentioned school newspaper. It isn’t so much that Google isn’t trustworthy; it’s that it is counter to its nature to keep secrets and not use them.
With regard to your question, “who is Dexrex?” I like to think Dexrex is a little like a personal bank. You can trust your messages with Dexrex because it will keep you in control and keep your privacy safe. Why? Because that’s what Dexrex does.
So I have 250 BB users, and SOX is telling me to archive and secure the data. How is this complying with privacy if the data is not inside my network infrastructure?
I also need WORM and the complete inability for anyone or any outside 3rd party to alter, adjust or delete the data. Otherwise I am in big trouble. I can secure the data, make the compliance people happy and control it from within my network.
Bob, it looks like you need a business-level solution for archiving and securing the data for a large fleet of BlackBerries. The version of Dexrex available at http://www.dexrex.com is really intended for personal use, and might not be the best fit.
However, we do have compliance specialists on staff. Send us a note at bizdev@dexrex.com, and we would be happy to help you find a solution that is SOX-compliant and fully contained in your network.
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