marinosbern

I've installed dozens of life-safety-critical services and none of them had ads or the Facebook SDK

Can you give a few examples?

none of them had ads

The comment was about the Facebook SDK being used for ad attribution, not that the apps themselves have ads.

While Spotify crashing on launch may be a nuisance, this also affects life-critical apps crashing on launch. Our forensic analysis [1] found that half of the top 21 iOS safety apps send data to Facebook, and last time this happened back in May we spot-checked some of these safety apps and they were all crashing on launch. The SDK is typically included for ad attribution/tracking, not Facebook login, so it wouldn’t even be visible to the end user, and there’s no way to disable it.

[1] https://parachute.live/blog/forensic-investigation-the-shock...

Done! Thanks so much for suggesting!

Here you go — findings for LiveSafe:

Branch, Crashlytics, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager

Our understanding is that it's an enterprise app not available to consumers, which is why we did not list its findings in the report

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this. I absolutely understand your concerns and I would be equally skeptical if I was reading this. Ultimately, anyone is free to repeat this analysis independently and see for themselves. Everything presented in our report is evidenced, recorded and cross-checked very extensively over a long period of time in anticipation of this. You'll also notice that we try to include as many references as possible to independent analyses and articles

Re manipulation of app pool, we searched very extensively both on our own and using outside services like AppFollow and AppFigures to get global rankings and these really were the top 20 we could find. You'll see that by the last one, we are reaching single-digit ratings, so we capped it at that. There are some other apps that match the "safety" keyword, but are not relevant to this study. For example an enterprise app for managing OSHA reports or a passive police scanner. If you can point us to an app that should be on the list, we will happily update this

Re more disclosure, this definitely should be read critically and with the understanding that we are one of the people in the space. From my point of view, I see the word "Parachute" on the URL, nav bar logo and author before getting to the title of the blog post. If you have a suggestion on how to better elucidate this, please let me know. We do believe that companies have the right to shine light on something, even if it's in the space in which they operate, but the reader should be fully aware of this at all times

Hi HN! I'm Marinos, engineer and Parachute founder

We originally developed Checkup as a way for changemakers around the world to alert their colleagues and loved ones in case they suddenly "go missing". However, we realized that, amid COVID-19, others can also benefit from this powerful feature, and today we are making it available to everyone on Parachute

Unlike apps that do 24x7 location sharing, Checkup keeps your location history private, and only releases it in the event you fail to mark yourself safe. This conditional release allows you to get the life-saving benefits of others having access to your location, but without having to sacrifice your privacy 24x7

Parachute is an independent, VC-free, tracker-free personal safety app with 4600+ 5-star reviews from around the world

Happy to hear your thoughts and answer any questions. You can also email me directly at marinos@parachute.live. Stay safe, healthy and sane

I've had an office/desk at WeWork in NYC since 2014 (although I almost never use it any more). It's been interesting to see WeWork's evolution through the years.

At the beginning, there was a lot of emphasis on community building, almost acting like a fake incubator with "WeWork Labs" (which has since shut down). The same pattern would repeat itself: new ambitious founder moves in (typically ex-Deloitte-type-person), would talk a strong game about how they're changing the world and reinventing and revolutionizing. Would have loud meetings in the conference rooms and loud fundraising calls in the phone booths that everyone would overhear and supposedly be envious of how much funding they are about to get. They would always be asking around about 'connecting' them to people who can build this app idea that they have, and how much it costs to build an app. Then, 6 months later, you would look at their desks. Empty. They were gone. We would never hear from them or see them again. I have seen this cycle repeat countless times. Starting around 2016, WeWork shifted its its efforts towards leasing to larger businesses instead of small startups or individuals. For example, last month my friend was given notice that they need to move because because a new company is renting the entire "dedicated desk" area (about 80 desks).

I found it to be a very bad environment for a coder to be in. The offices are all right next to each other and the only thing separating them is a single pane of glass. Typically, 80% of the offices are occupied by loud sales-type people, who are yelling on the phone to their "overseas developers". Even if you're wearing headphones, it's pretty annoying. Especially when their conversations reveal how terrible their products and businesses are. When everyone is working at the same company, open-office-style environments are easier, because there's a level of respect among coworkers. But when you're surrounded by other companies, it's very hard to enforce.

So, bottom line, if you're there to meet interesting people or be surrounded by quality companies, you will be disappointed. And if you're there to code in a quiet environment, better to stay at home.

It's easy to hate on WeWork. But WeWork offers a few things that are very hard to match. First, design. You get an office space and environment (furniture, rooms, common spaces, food, snacks, coffee) that feels like you're working at a large fun tech office, which would be impossible to replicate if you just leased a commercial space on your own. Second, consistency. I can go to any WeWork in the world and I know exactly what it's going to be like — what the conference rooms will look like, how to book a day desk, how to print, etc. I know that it's going to be a good environment to have a client meeting or to do work, and I won't be let down. Third, flexibility. Most leases are month to month, and so it's very easy to move to different neighborhoods and offices (I've switched buildings 3 times). Good design, consistency and flexibility should not be discounted. I know I can rely on WeWork wherever I go. And so that's why I've still kept an office there as a pied-a-terre even though I almost never use it anymore

I started Parachute [1] by accident when I won the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 Hackathon with its first prototype. I dropped everything else I was doing and launched it right here on HN a few months after that [2]. Today it's a healthy business without having taken a single cent of VC funding. I'm the only one full time on it, and it's made possible by relying heavily on a network of amazing friends who are each responsible for specific subprojects within their areas of expertise. Everyone is geographically distributed and I spend 9 months a year in NYC and the remaining 3 months traveling

Cheers to all the amazing engineers here who run ethical, douche-free, sustainable businesses

[1] https://parachute.live/app (app), https://parachute.live/platform (B2B)

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9885950

Parachute | Engineer | New York or Remote | Full Time, Part Time, Visa | https://parachute.live

Parachute is building the future of emergency management. The Parachute app livestreams your location, audio and video to your friends and loved ones in the event of an emergency. The Parachute platform provides organizations with the tools they need to handle emergencies faster and smarter. Our technology has been featured on the App Store, TechCrunch, CSI: Cyber and more, and people all around the world rely on us every day for their personal safety.

We are looking for engineers with experience in at least one of { iOS | Android | video/graphics/codecs | hardware/Bluetooth | web/frontend | backend/services/APIs | security } and a passion for writing simple, clean, performant, well-tested code fast.

If you are interested in building the software and hardware that keeps the world safe, reach out us at jobs@parachute.live

Hi HN! I'm Marinos, I made this. To give you a little bit of background, soon after launching Witness [1], I started hearing from a diverse set of organizations who saw Witness as having the potential to be extremely impactful in their field and wanted to integrate with it in various ways. To date, more than 50 organizations have reached out about this. The Parachute platform is the answer to that - organizations receive live video, audio and location straight from people’s smartphones, with emergency routing, archiving and analytics. Here’s a medium post I just wrote going into more detail: https://medium.com/p/c42d0a204a2a. Cheers!

[1] https://getwitness.com, now Parachute https://parachute.live

Witness | getwitness.com | Engineer #2 | New York | Full Time, Visa

Witness lets you broadcast your location, audio and video to your friends and loved ones with one touch. I made Witness at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 Hackathon and it ended up winning the grand prize [1]. I launched Witness just 7 weeks ago right here on Show HN [2][3] and it’s been growing like crazy since. It became clear that this is more than just a side project, so I got funding and now I’m looking for one of you to join me as Engineer #2. You should have deep experience in at least one of { iOS | Android | video/graphics/codecs | hardware/Bluetooth | web/frontend | backend/services | networks/TCP } and a passion for writing simple, clean, performant, tested code fast.

Reach out to me at marinos@getwitness.com. Cheers!

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/03/disrupt-ny-2015-hackathon-w...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9885950

[3] http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/14/witness-officially-launches...

:) I was lucky enough to work for a great company [1] that was very techy so in terms of the culture it wasn't much of a transition. The hardest part (which I am still working on) is developing for anyone out there instead of internal use. I rarely had to think about UI/UX/User Behavior previously.

[1] http://www.sig.com/

I'll check it out, thanks for recommending

Interesting. Have you been asked that before? I've done a fair amount of going in and out of the country and was never asked

Thanks! The functionality does not depend on the person's friends joining the app

I think this goes without saying, but absolutely not. Data will never be available to anyone in any way, shape or form, except people chosen by you. I am adding this to the website now.

My experience was exactly the same. The record button on the camera app is small and hard to hit if you're running/your hands are shaky. Also if you touch the screen while recording it changes the focus and you could also accidentally end the recording. All these could have serious implications during an emergency.

That's why for Witness I made sure you could touch anywhere on the screen while recording and it would be almost impossible to do any damage. So you can conceal your phone while your fingers rest on the screen.

You've hit the nail right on the head. A 2-stage process (1-record 2-notify) is definitely the number one feature request. For this version, I wanted to keep things super simple and get it out there as soon as possible so I can start getting feedback. I should be adding that to the next version.

Would you prefer an automatic 24-hour notification or a manual 2-stage process where you first record and then notify the emergency contacts if needed?

Yes, I'm already working on an Android version and an Apple Watch version. I'm really excited about the new Apple watch which is rumored to have a camera because it seems like the perfect medium for Witness to run on

Unfortunately not - I picked the name at 4am at the Disrupt hackathon and, at that point, name collisions were the least of my worries. In fact, there's a ton of apps in the App Store with Witness in them. After it won the hackathon the name stuck and it was impossible to change

Yes, I have heard about this as well. A bunch of people from India have emailed me about using Witness there and some have already been field-testing it. This version does work in India, with full calling/texting support, but I definitely want to work on it a little more to better tailor it to places outside the US

I actually asked a bunch of psychologists about this. Most people will either freeze or run. If your inbuilt reaction is to run, you are already in the lucky group. The goal is to use it, if possible, while running, so I tried to make it as simple as possible to activate. Unfortunately, because of Apple restrictions, you still need to launch the app, but I'm experimenting with things like using notification center for faster access

If there's no cell network it will store everything locally (status bar turns purple) until the cell network comes back up. This happens automatically and I'm already working on making it more explicit in future versions

Thanks for pointing this out. The original thinking was twofold: 1) I didn't want people to get in trouble if their phones were searched and they were in possession of a recording and 2) Keep the data stored on the phone to a minimum, in order to increase available space for storing video when Cellular Data/WiFi is not available. The data is always available later through the shortlink.

You raise a very good point though. Offering an option to keep data locally (or save it in the camera roll) in a future version would make sense

It will store everything on the device until the Internet is back up, then it will resume the stream. If it never comes back up, it will keep storing on the device until battery/storage runs out. It is designed to never lose data unless it has to

I'm just one guy, not really a company:) But definitely agree with you, and, in fact, Witness itself is made possible thanks, in part, to a bunch of open source projects

I am so sorry for that, I picked the name Witness at 4am during a hackathon and had no idea it would win. It was an unfortunate choice of name, especially given that there are a ton of apps in the App Store with "Witness" in them

I completely agree, having a 2-stage process to first stream and then notify emergency contacts is one of the top feature requests. I should be adding that in the next version

Haha I've never seen Silicon Valley but I will sure check it out!

Hi HN! I’m Marinos, I made this. Here’s a medium post I just wrote going into more detail on the motivation & design decisions behind Witness: https://medium.com/@marinosbern/witness-livestreaming-for-em.... Let me know if you have any feedback/questions about Witness or live streaming or anything else. One question I get a lot is whether I am planning to open source this. I am, and I’m also extracting all the live streaming logic into a drop-in iOS library. Cheers!