Startup Spotlight — How humanID is Revolutionizing Online Interaction

humanID is an open-source, non-profit startup tackling the internet’s biggest problems: fake news, accountability, and anonymity. The startup found its beginning at the Harvard Innovation Lab and was co-founded by Bastian Purrer (HBS MBA class of ‘20), Shuyao Kong (HBS MBA class of ‘20), and Sidiq Permana. humanID was a Semifinalist for the 2020 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge and the winner of the Navab Social Impact Fellowship Fund 2020.

This is only the beginning for humanID. I had the opportunity to have some questions answered by the humanID team about the service they provide, the challenges they’re tackling, and the future that they hope is in store for their company. Read that conversation below:

What is it exactly that humanID offers and how does it work?

“Each time you log onto a website or app, you are prompted with options for signing in to your account, ie “Login with Facebook”. humanID is a Login option that benefits you as a user by keeping your data completely anonymous, and it benefits apps by reducing the number of bots, fake accounts, and abusive users on their platforms. After selecting humanID as your way to log in, you are prompted to enter your phone number, which you will then verify by entering the 4-digit verification code sent to you. After completing that simple step, you have successfully logged in! humanID then generates a “hash”, a random identifier that cannot be reversed. Your number is permanently deleted from our servers, such that you have complete anonymity. The app you just logged into has a verification that you are actually a human, not a spam or bot account, without ever receiving any personal identifiable information.”

Tell us about the founding story of humanID.

“humanID started when Bastian got upset about fake news.

He lived in Indonesia at the time, and had worked in consumer tech/e-commerce for years. He quickly realized how easy it was to build bot networks, to buy followers, to fake popularity, and to manipulate algorithms. During the 2019 Indonesian elections, he worked with one of the political parties and discovered that every party used and still uses bot networks like a normal marketing tool. People rioted and died on the streets because of rumors they read.

Research shows that fake news is driven to a major extent by fake accounts. Facebook & Twitter don’t address that at all, since they can’t afford to lose “users” or undermine the credibility of their MAU numbers… The solution would be a one digital ID per human, while also protecting users’ privacy!”

What was the decision making process behind forming as a non-profit and being all open-source?

“humanID is all about trust.

Users trust us not to store, transfer or sell their phone numbers and personal data. Users have been given this promise by private enterprises many times (WhatsApp…), and they know that it can only be trusted until the next quarterly report or leadership change.

humanID’s claims can be trusted for two reasons: we’re a 501c3 non-profit working under the binding terms of our vision with no incentive to focus on profit, and we’re open source, which means everyone can see exactly what we do with your data.

The same trust extends to our partners, who trust us to manage their users’ identity, and, most importantly, to the team. We’re all volunteers — only a non-profit setup guarantees that our creation will not be abused for malicious purposes in contradiction to our vision in the future.

Open source is powerful because it lowers the barriers to adoption and collaboration, allowing people to spread and improve projects quickly. Developers can take on projects, review them to give feedback, or build on something better on top of existing code.”

What’s it like for a college student to intern at humanID or for a recent grad to work there full time? Tell us about humanID’s company culture and what the team looks like.

“Our team is composed almost entirely of volunteer college students and recent grads. In fact, humanID was founded by grads from Harvard Business School’s Class of 2020. Given the nature of everyone volunteering their time, we are a team of people that are genuinely committed to humanID’s mission of building better online communities and fixing the Internet.

As an international team, spanning many continents, we have weekly bonding and gaming sessions that are a part of our collaborative culture and are always looking for new ways to foster camaraderie among our the humanID community. 90% of the team joined after life went ‘socially distant’, so we have had to actively handle the challenge of forming a team on Zoom.

Most recently, we hosted a team mindfulness and meditation session and have a weekly “All Hands” meeting to discuss all elements of the work that is occurring at humanID.”

Given that humanID is an open-source non-profit run by a team of volunteers, your team seems very committed to online privacy and internet safety. Tell us about some of the other initiatives that humanID has launched that reflect this commitment.

“Our goal is to do everything that we can to keep people informed of and engaged with online privacy and its importance. Beyond working on our Sign In option, accessible by everyone on github (https://github.com/bluenumberfoundation), we have a content team that produces great content each week!

On our Blog (https://medium.com/humanid), we publish articles about bots, disinformation, and related content.

Additionally, we have launched a podcast, “humanVoices” (https://anchor.fm/human-id), where we speak to experts in the cybersecurity field to hear their takes on the latest news in tech.”

What new partnerships are you excited about? How should companies or individuals looking to integrate humanID into their work reach out to you?

“We’re preparing a long list of collaboration for launch within the next few months, including health apps protecting the most vulnerable, apps that support anonymous reports for immigrant labor, and collaboration and communication forums.

If any company wants to offer more privacy to users, ensure full compliance with recent legislation, or cut down cost for moderating spam, they should talk to us (reach out to Bastian: bastian@human-id.org, or reach them via their website! — https://www.human-id.org).”

What is the main challenge humanID faces now and what are your plans to address it moving forward?

“Our main challenge is fundraising. In times of Covid, philanthropies and charities are focused on much needed short-term help.

humanID is a high risk, high reward investment, like other startups. Donating and supporting humanID will “pay” back supporting a better, accountable, and secure internet. Platforms built on humanID will see significantly less data leaks and breaches, less fake news, and much less hatred and spam.

An accountable, secure web can bring humanity together and fulfill the initial vision of the internet. We are more than 25 volunteers donating our time and are incredibly grateful for each minute by our rockstar team! We hope to soon find similar support among donors (donations to humanID can be done at https://www.human-id.org/donate).”

What is the vision for humanID in 5 years time?

“humanID will be the standard a better internet will be built on. Human interaction and communication is broken — it is not safe and mostly not even human.

But a functioning society requires security and accountability — one voice per human. With bot networks spreading fake news, humans being surveilled by governments and private companies alike, and everyone afraid to share anything sensitive online, society had to break.

The new internet will be built using humanID’s ideas. Better social media, better online decision making and voting, and better protection of minorities and the vulnerable — all those require an independent identity standard: a better foundation.”

How has business been affected, if at all, by the COVID-19 pandemic?

“As a global company with a universal mission, the entirety of our work, including internal and client meetings, has always been done remotely. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted the traditional humanID working structure. However, this arrangement allows us to build a unique team of volunteers from across many universities and geographies. With the world becoming increasingly reliant on the internet, and the resulting growing awareness of data concerns (like news of Zoom security issues and the recent uproar with TikTok), we believe that now, more than ever, we need the humanID solution to restore an individual’s right to privacy and civility on the Internet.”

What’s your company’s “hottest take”? That is, an opinion or belief that you hold core to humanID’s mission statement that may be unexpected or controversial.

“Anonymity is good!

Pundits like to blame anonymity for all the problems on the internet, like hatred and bullying. But the real problem is the lack of accountability. Some people turn into monsters online due to the lack of consequences of their behaviour. If they get banned, they just create another email and come back one minute later under a new account.

If users only have one online identity each, that can be rewarded or penalized by a platform or connection; they will be held accountable to their behaviour, just as we are offline. So, we will be able to rid of stalkers, bullies, and haters and build a better community.

Anonymity on the other hand actually helps protect the most vulnerable. Voting is anonymous. Whistleblowing is. Seeking advice on sensitive topics should be.

Anonymity is good, misbehaviour without consequences is bad.”