The Glynx Blackpages

With real world directories like phone books, you supply a key, the directory supplies a value. In a phone book, the key is the name you know, and the returned value is the listed phone number of the person.

Using White Pages (or Yellow Pages) you can browse all the listed names or businesses and contact anyone you want. In web versions, as well as sites such as facebook, ebay and google, you can enter a last name and obtain details on everyone listed in the directory under that name (as spammers and cold callers love to do).

This information is available to anyone who looks. The information (as well as additional, private information) is also available to the central overseeing authority, the publisher of the phone directory.

To clear up any potential confusion, we are not talking about existing information directories for Indigenous Australians or African Americans; nor are we talking about hypothetical directories with “black” or illegal information in them.

A Blackpage directory is searchable but not browsable. You need a key, examples being: a specific email address, phone number or Skype ID which you enter, and if the information is correct your Glynx receives, as the value, the interne address with a verifying credential which leads to direct PC to PC communication with the other person.

Put simply, a Blackpage directory is a listing of individuals, “lone wolves” perhaps, who exchange connections with each other as they see fit. There is no overseeing authority, no central server containing a repository of everyone’s information, and thus, no possibility of a breach of privacy.

You don’t need to know the following to use the Blackpages, but for those who are interested, here’s a bit more detail.

You may enquire in the directory for information about a specific entry only if you have a unique piece of information (such as a mobile phone number) associated with that entry, and then you may request further information (such as rich presence) from the address associated with the entry. A contact must present credentials to receive the additional information and, based on the credentials, the contact is assigned to a persona which determines the information they are entitled to receive.

Glynx has several features which enable our directory to serve the interests of users rather than any other individuals or organisations (such as spammers, hackers, governments or particular networks).

• It is a peer-to-peer directory which limits the ability of any network or other entity to influence the directory.
• All IDs are digested using a hash algorithm before being listed in the directory. This prevents nodes1) from directly identifying the IDs they are hosting (we use a 256 bit hash key which makes reverse engineering the ID after the hash process impossible for all practical purposes).
• The IDs associated with listings can have varying levels of trust associated with them. They may be unsigned or signed by the listing individual, a third party verifier or an ID provider. Those searching for a listing can choose what level of trust they wish to place on a listing, for example only trust listings signed by individuals I know, or by third party verifiers I trust.
• Individuals that are enquired about are in control of the amount of information they reveal to the enquirer. Enquirers must present credentials and based on credentials may be automatically assigned to personas.
• Public information may be associated with a listing to enable rapid dissemination of general ID information.

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