Fixing .Mac - Idea 6: Add Privacy Management

Apple's nebulous .Mac services were introduced in What the Heck is .Mac? In 10 Reasons Why Apple Can Kickstart Web 2.0 I presented why Apple is uniquely poised to actually deliver .Mac services well worth the price of admission. In this series, I'll describe features I think Apple needs to add to their .Mac service to move it from "web hosting and email plus" to a complete suite of services that are valuable, obvious, and will sell themselves to potential .Mac subscribers. Plus, I want to use them!

Idea # 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 : Add Privacy Management

Borrows Ideas From:

BugMeNot, Gmail, Craigslist

With all the proof of identity and money moving around, what about privacy? Existing social networking systems already allow users to choose if they want to reveal their profile information to anybody, or just other people they trust in their network. Apple can do one better by allowing members easy to navigate levels of trust: public information, generally private information for known associates, and the existing .Mac ability to secure private information with a password.

Why Apple Can Deliver this:

Apple can build upon existing services because Apple has (1) the users, and (2) owns the platforms to roll it out. The system is (3) given away for free, as part of .Mac. Apple knows how to run business both (4) online and (5) face to face, and users (6) trust Apple with their purchases. Further, Apple has proven they can build things that (7) work, are (8) usable, (9) very cool, and (10) will actually get finished.

Here's how it works:

Apple already gives .Mac members five email aliases. Apple could extend the system so users could assign increasing levels of trust to different email identities. For example, a user might want to assign the information on their personal Address Book card to their personal email, while assigning their business or work related contact information to a business alias. A third identity might be completely anonymous.

Controls built into Safari could enable the level of identity privacy used while browsing, and a provide visual alert on the existing security level.

•Setting Anonymous identity would initiate Private Browsing, and could generate temporary use email addresses for one off events 32538927NNWUIN@mac.com (like Craigslist does for anonymous ad posters), or even provide anonymous logins for sites that demand registration (like BugMeNot). Apple should also copy plus addressing from Google's Gmail. By appending + and a given tag to an existing email, users can track or filter their replies, such as: superdan2006xyx+signup@mac.com.
•Setting Normal identity would allow the exchange of public encryption keys and enable support for certificate based digital signatures and encrypted "certified mail" provided via signed checksums. This is technically trivial, but existing systems require expert knowledge of how to set things up. Apple is great at making things that "just work." Sites tagged by the .Mac community as "generally trusted" could be automatically given access to autofill information, while sites that have been tagged as suspicious or a security risk could bring up a red flag and trigger Private Browsing behaviors.
•Setting Trusted identity would unlock a secure Keychain containing bank account numbers and other sensitive data. The system could even be configured to automatically reduce the security level after a certain period of time. The browser could examine connections for suspicious phishing activity by looking up hyperblog tags and whois information.

Identity and Privacy features for Groups & Businesses

With member profiles and an invitation network, a far richer community of .Mac Groups could develop (like Tribe and Yahoo Groups). As members attach to a Group, they could have the option of associating their rich identity and reputation, or doing so anonymously. Group organizers can create discussion forums on the most esoteric of interests, and benefit from the centralized commenting and reputation systems. Members could contribute micropayment dues to cover a group's ongoing expenses.

Bang! Apple can not only lead the industry in providing authenticated identity for users, but also help secure their control of their own privacy.

But wait there's more.