what is glynx?
Glynx is software you run on your PC to control your online identities and make your internet private.
That's a bit of a mouthful, so let's explain, one bite at a time...
control your online identities
By this we mean that you control who has access to information about you - and, just as importantly, what information they can see. For example, you may wish to have many different online profiles or sets of contact information - which you may share selectively with others. Glynx lets you do this. And Glynx does not restrict what information you can share with others.
make your internet private
"...That's a huuuuge statement - (we hear you say) surely I don't own the Internet, how can I make it private?..."
Well, when we talk about the internet, we take a broad view and mean:
- the websites which you visit and those on which you store and share information about yourself;
- your email and messaging systems;
- your PC and the PCs of those with whom you communicate; and
- your phone, PDA and other interconnected mobile devices.
Without Glynx, the web sites and service providers pretty much control how your information is used. They are in a position to watch your relationships and monitor what information you are sharing, and with whom. Your e-mail and messaging is increasingly full of SPAM and attempts to defraud you or steal your online identity. And your mobile connectivity and productivity is at the mercy of your service provider (For example, even though my phone is clever enough to tell me GPS directions, browse the net, and buy music - the telco won't let it tell me if you're on a call, forcing me to pay to leave a voicemail ).
Figure 1. Centralised server-based network. Notice how the central server controls all interaction between participants.
Without Glynx, you are not in control of your online world - you often don't really know who you are dealing with and are unaware of who is recording your every move. And the usefulness of your devices is determined by your service providers.
With Glynx your information stays on your PC. Unless, of course, you wish to share it with someone else - in which case it gets sent directly from your PC to theirs. No middle-men. But even before you share information, Glynx lets you know who you are dealing with. And you can know what each of your contacts is up to as soon as they do.
Figure 2. Glynx Peer-to-peer network. Note how control is distributed out to your PC.
Sounds simple doesn't it? Find people you know and share your information directly with them. In real time. Without observation or interference by any third party.
That's Glynx.
find people you
know
The heart of our system is a special directory which we call the Glynx Blackpages. We call it that because it is different from any other directory you have used:
- It doesn't exist in one place - it is spread out amongst all of the PCs running Glynx. This means there is no single, central view of the directory.
- You can't browse the directory. It's not like a whitepages or yellowpages directory (heh - see where the Blackpages name is coming from?). You can't hunt for someone. Hackers and SPAMmers can't trawl the directory for likely entries.
- No-one controls the contents of the directory. We don't know what's in it - and neither does anyone else. All that anyone can know is what entries they've listed, and those that they have discovered.
- All entries are encrypted and/or obscured before listing.
What you can do is look up an ID (like an e-mail address or a phone number) of someone you know. If they are listed in the directory then you can use Glynx to communicate directly with them on their PC.
Figure 3: Whitepages and Blackpages directories
And Glynx includes a trust framework. Which is a fancy way of saying that in Glynx, you can prove to others that you are who you claim, and vice-versa. So you can look up someone you know in the Glynx Blackpages and know that it's them. And then they know that you know. And- well, you get the picture. On public websites people can be anyone they want to be, but for private relationships you need to be able to trust.
You can read more about the Glynx Blackpages in the product manual, the FAQs, or (in nitty, gritty detail) a technical whitepaper.
share your information
Glynx isn't intended to be a replacement for the rest of the internet. It's just that not all online interaction should be shoehorned into a public mode.
Just like the real world has shopping malls and public spaces, the world wide web has it's social networking sites, auction and shopfront sites, dating sites, forums, info sites, directories and search engines. There are plenty of online places for you to publicise yourself. So go right ahead. Be as public as you want to be. Put yourself out there and be found.
However, while the mall is a nice (or interesting or useful) place to visit, you wouldn't want to live there.
So (to strech this analogy to breaking point) Glynx is like your home; a personal space where you control who can come in and which bits they get to see. Glynx provides you with the online private space for when you choose to have a private interaction with your friends, family, work colleagues or clients.
Glynx - your world of private applications
Glynx is actually a base product upon which we're going to layer a wide range of functionality - so you can mix and match the tools you need to make your internet private.
We've started out by building a real-time contact manager, a rich presence tool and the world's most secure OpenID-based website login service.
it works for you. it works for your network.
With Glynx there are no new numbers, accounts or addresses to learn. You don't get yet another electronic identity - you just use your existing ones more effectively.
In real time, you or other Glynx users can let each other know where you are, what you are doing, how you would like to be contacted and whether you are available. And you can authorise Glynx to use this information automatically so that you and others can communicate in the most efficient and most appropriate manner to each other, in total privacy.
Find out more about how Glynx works, or for even more detail on the underlying technology, have a look at our Help and Support.
Tagged as: Blackpages, application, control, find, identity, information, internet, online, people, privacy, real-time, share, trust
