
Show HN: Automated online dead man switch - deif
https://www.deadmantracker.com/
======
deif
OP is me.

What is it? Oh god, it's another online dead man switch. Yeah but it's better
(I think) and free (with the ability to pay if you want to). You can have it
send an email, or download the app on either app store and receive
notifications via push notifications. It even tracks your location if you want
it to.

Why? There's a popular dead man's switch already out there (in fact there's a
few) but they're old, dated, and limited. This has been a passion project for
me that I've been building as a side project for nearly a year and today I
completed the first thing that users might pay for - secure file storage that
get released when your dead man's switch triggers.

I know what you're thinking for file storage - is it secure? How does it work?
The short answer is - it's not secure unless the user encrypts the files and
sends the decryption key to their chosen recipient (which is what I recommend
in the 'Articles' section in a couple of written pieces).

Target audiences: Initially I wanted to target myself. I'm going travelling
soon and I wanted a way to tell my family if something happened to me
automatically and I wanted the ability to track my location as I travel
through countries and then see a nice map at the end of it. So I made a nice
side project that was fun for me to build. Then my friends said it was a good
idea and I should have people sign up. Then other people said it would be
useful for their elderly parents so they knew if something happened to them.
Then other people said it would be useful for them on nights out in case
anything happened to them on the walk home. Then other people said it would be
useful to make sure their kids were ok when they're away from home. The
problem with current services is that they're not that friendly to the
ordinary user. There's no explanations, there's no guides. Services like this
that can bring real benefit need to be simple which is what I hope I'm doing.

And THEN before I even marketed the product (this is my first 'official'
marketing of the service) a domestic violence non-profit got in contact me
with a request to create an alternative version of the app that could sit on a
victims phone without raising suspicion from their abuser. They could then
safely trigger their dead man's switch if they felt they needed to to
automatically send an alert to their support network, or have it trigger if
their phone gets destroyed. This is what I'll be working on next and it's
partially what paying users will be funding - so I can work with charities for
providing real benefit to people that need it. In the future? I want to keep
adding features that fit the service that benefit people and provide a quality
niche product.

About me: Obviously I'm not a designer. I'm a backend guy mostly with tons of
experience in everything except design, so I keep the design simple.

