About Us
Our founder Bastian Purrer spent several years working on political campaigns in Indonesia, the world’s 3rd largest democracy. There, he witnessed an election where partisanism blurred fact and fiction as both sides spread propaganda online using automated accounts. Subsequently, election results were contested and protests and riots ensued around the country. It should sound familiar.
Bastian realized that the current design of the online ecosystem was threatening democracies worldwide. The status quo will continue to inflict damage on democracies: more bot networks, more fake news, more polarization. Equally scary are current proposals to fix this problem that will send us careening towards 1984-esque authoritarianism.
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So if the social internet has not fostered democratic communication, where lies the heart of the problem? Bot manipulation? Echo chambers? Toxic algorithms? Authoritarian snooping? Anonymity? Bad websites pretending to be good? Worse journalism?
Why has democracy worked so well in the real world but less so online?
The humanID answer comes from the fundamental rule of democracies: one human, one voice. humanID’s mission is to bring this principle to the online world. Democracy works in a way authoritarian alternatives never could. The solution to the 21st century internet’s problems is a centuries old theory of social organization.
Our Vision
humanID’s first goal was to bring the “one” in one human, one voice to the internet: there should only be one identity per human. This inspired us to build a single sign-on tool, addressing the beginning of internet identity. We first committed to making it restrictive of multiple accounts: one human, one humanID. The technical implementation of this theory is currently to require a phone number for sign-on; while not perfect, most people will stick to one phone number.
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“One human, one voice” does not just mean that people’s identities are restricted. These voices must be free. For a democracy to work, its participants must be free to speak their mind without unfair consequences. This is freedom of speech. In creating a one identity per human system, humanID would jeopardize freedom of speech online, where everything is recorded, without the appropriate safeguard.
That safeguard is anonymity. humanID users are kept completely anonymous by humanID. While sites can — and will — ask for users’ identities, with humanID, it is the users who control this. This protects citizens from authoritarian governments who would use the internet to surveil its people. It also protects citizens from the doxxing and cancelling that have grown in prominence on the internet in recent years.
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It does this by mimicking the real world online. Think about the different masks you wear in the real world. I’m the quiet brand marketer from 9-5 and someone completely different with my friends after. I’m a different man when my wife’s parents are around, or my kids, or my high school friends. The norms, rules and judgements change from place to place, and they shouldn’t overlap by default – I don’t get fired from my job for getting into an argument with my friend. We call this a right to privacy: to control who gets to know what about us.
humanID brings this same privacy to the internet by siloing your different online identities from each other: you carry a unique anonymous identifier on Reddit and Twitter and Youtube and the next Facebook, and it’s all separate from your human identity.
That’s how humanID ended up in its current form. It embraces the challenge of making democracy work on the internet. It takes the core parts of democracies, and extends them to an internet that up until now has been a wild west. We hope that the world this creates — both online and offline — is more democratic, more safe and more human.
In fixing these problems, humanID does more than put a bandaid on a single issue. Countless causes would benefit from a healthier internet.
With healthier political institutions, more responsible online behavior, and better ability to share trusted knowledge, we can better curb catastrophes such as COVID.
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The single identity model stops private interests from generating traffic (and consequently credibility) around a given topic more than any one user. humanID recalibrates the internet to be compatible with democracy, falling back on humanity’s greatest tool for cooperation and self-governance.
Climate change is another. Or police reform, or economic policy, or fixing racism, sexism, mental health stigma, immigration, privacy laws, criminal justice reform, religious freedom, gun control.
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Or demanding basic human rights, like clean air, fair work conditions, access to water, adequate standards of living, freedom to assemble, freedom of speech. Any issue where misinformation online promotes inaction or erroneous action stands to benefit from humanID.
By putting the right infrastructure in place for healthier democratic dialogue, humanID lays the foundation for a future of more nimble, intelligent democracies worldwide. humanID’s impact will be massive, as it will apply to a whole range of causes. Better conversions and better facts will help the fight against covid and climate change. Better debates will improve democratic dialogue and help us find solutions to complex challenges such as the future of free speech.
Decreased polarization will help marginalized and persecuted minorities as much as those struggling with mental health issues. The list could go on forever…
FAQ
Wait, so how does it protect my data?
A. You give us your phone number and we will send you a text message to verify it’s your phone. We send you a text and to verify it’s your phone. Then we turn your phone number into an irreversible codename, and erase your phone number from our servers. When you click “login with humanID,” sites only see you as this anonymous codename. To top it off, every site has a different version of this codename for you, so sites cannot connect your online identity between each other.
Isn’t anonymity incompatible with accountability?
A. Our tech is the solution to that exact dilemma. Anonymity is bad because typically it guarantees no consequences – you can just rejoin under a different identity. With humanID, you can’t. Take Wikipedia as an example: because editors are held accountable for the edits they make, a large network of anonymous editors has managed to put together one of the internet’s most honest places for information.
Why should people assume humanID is trustworthy?
A. We are a nonprofit. We do not have fiduciary duty. We are open source and transparent. Anyone can verify our code does what it says. We are supported by Harvard and Mozilla. We have 5 live integrations and counting.
Does humanID really improve conversion rates? I haven’t detected that my users dislike Login with Facebook?
A. Yes it does! User research shows that the “Privacy Paradox” (users say they care, but don’t act like it) is a myth. One poll found that many people take a dim view of those “targeted” advertisements. Some 63 percent said they would like to see “less targeted advertising” in the future, while 9 percent said they wanted more. When asked to compare them with traditional forms of advertising, 41 percent said targeted ads are “worse” while 21 percent said they are “better.”
66% of people said data-privacy concerns impacted their trust of social media. Only 13% of respondents said “don’t care,” while 17% said that the impact of data privacy issues on their social media attitudes was “low.”
Our Team
Founders
Bastian Purrer
Founder LYKE, CMO Homejoy, CMO Zalora, Harvard Business School MBA
Shuyao Kong
Blockchain expert, formerly Brave, ConsenSys, Harvard Business School MBA
Sidiq Permana
CEO & Founder NBS.co.id
Namik Muduroglu
Global Shaper at World Economic Forum, B.S. Candidate at NYU Stern
Our Fully Remote Team
Visit our LinkedIn page to learn more about our team.
Advisors
Nick Espinosa
Strategic Advisor,
Chief Security Fanatic,
Forbes Tech Council
Adar Arnon
Former Cybersecurity leader in the Israel Defense Force
Josh Sperling
Sr Product Manager
@Contra
Puvan J. Sulvanathan
Former Cybersecurity leader CEO & Founder Bluenumber, Former President United Nations Global Compact Network Malaysia
Why Work at humanID?
We are a nonprofit where volunteers take on real responsibilities and experience a true tech startup, with a strong focus on your individualized learning goals! Last year, volunteers from Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and Columbia and other schools were leading teams, initiatives, sales calls and much more. All roles will work directly with the founders, two Harvard Business School graduates. We are a team of 35, and will ensure that roles and tasks are adjusted to every team member’s career goals.
Real World Experience
You will be working in a real startup environment, and be able to build diverse connections across the tech and philanthropic world. The projects you work on will be directly based on your own learning goals!
Positive Work Environment
You will be part of a diverse and friendly team that values your individual ideas and contributions. We are here for our employees – our goal is to build each other up and make working at humanID the most positive experience possible!
Make a Difference
You will take on significant responsibility and make a direct positive impact in our world through exciting projects and team collaboration. We’ve built an awesome team as well as a meaningful product that can change the world!
Current Openings
How to Apply
If you’re interested in working with us, please fill in this short form. You can also find us on Handshake!
Location and Details
Roles can be part-time or full-time, and will be unpaid. We are actively recruiting year round for applicants that can commit at least 15 hours a week for 3 months. We are looking for interns starting anytime, including spring semester and summer. We have been remote and globally set up even before the recent events, and welcome team members from anywhere in the world.
Testimonials
Technical Content Intern
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- Research and compile information on technical topics from reliable sources to present in a concise written format
- Produce and peer-edit bi-weekly articles for public websites
- Create relationships with teams on the job through weekly meetings and communication
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Business Development Intern
- Identify and generate new Leads through various channels (social media, startup directories, etc)
- Identify and execute new creative methods to find and communicate with Leads
- Expanding the humandID network to increase exposure
- Conducting market research to identify and reach out to potential prospects
- Collect and maintain information in CRM databases
- Participate in external calls with one of our co-founders
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HR & Recruiting Internship
- Review candidates resumes
- Create and update job descriptions
- Serve as the first point of contact for new hires
- Assist in maintaining and organizing HR files, records, and databases
- Conduct interviews with potential new hires
- Prepare and send offer letters to candidates
- Ensure smooth transition through the onboarding process
- Implement the company’s recruiting strategy
- Lead team bonding sessions between the various teams at humanID
- Ensure a positive and inclusive culture (50+ people around the World)
- Release and analyze internal surveys at humanID
- Evaluate the effectiveness of onboarding and offboarding process
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Web Development Internship
- Maintaining our existing WordPress sites through website updates and small projects
- Selecting and installing WordPress theme development
- Working with the design team to implement new design iterations onto the live site using WordPress
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Open Source Mentor
- Mentor the passionate developers at humanID, who are actively learning and making an impact.
- Have a deep understanding of the code and lead high-quality code reviews.
- Ensure all security issues are being properly addressed in and out of code
- Represent us in external events, conferences, grant and sales calls
- Depending on time availability, this can range from occasional calls (1h/week) to a CTO/Technical co-founder role (10h/week).
- Open Source Mentor will assist and guide theDevelopers with the following areas:
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- Agile development, Kanban, SCRUM, Extreme Programming
- Frontend web development (HTML, CSS, JS, Bootstrap)
- Backend web development (Django, Node.JS, Golang, PHP)
- CI/CD (Docker, AWS, GitHub Actions)
- Open source development
- SDK development and maintenance
- Cybersecurity
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Questions about humanID?
Send us a message!
