This isn't precisely a zoo thing, but I think it might be helpful in our community. We tend to be secretive, and meeting people with similar interests can be difficult, especially if there isn't mutual trust. But I have an idea of how this mistrust could be managed, particularly in association with a forum like knotty or its successor.
Essentially, one would build a database of userIDs or nicknames. The owner of each ID would then enter an address associated with them. But this address would not be stored: the latitude and longitude would be perturbed slightly, within a range of perhaps five miles or so. This "fuzzy location" would then be associated with the user and kept in a hash table, encrypted without any real identifying information. This associated location could be changed at any time, for example if the user was at a convention or travelling for work.
Assuming two users wanted to meet, and were near enough based on those "fuzzy" locations, one of them would request a meeting. The system would then take their two "fuzzy locations" calculate a "fuzzy midpoint", and then find a nearby public business, park, or restaurant. The two would then be able to agree to a time and place without any knowledge of each other's actual locations, and without a human third party coordinating them.
Of course, such a thing would require trust in the developer and the program, so it would be open source. I don't know of another attempt to make something similar, but if it exists already, it would be good to find and spread. If it doesn't, though, it might be developed with the Google Maps API or something similar. Am I missing a reason why this sort of thing wouldn't be helpful to people who wish to meet safely in public?
How to get caught by the police: step 1.
Any outsider could pretend to be a zoophile and whoop our tiny miserable asses.
This 'program' (?) cannot prevent that.
Also, there's a group of outsiders watching this sub, you know.
Hey lurkers. Bye lurkers.
Hi!
The "safest" app/program won´t do shit when the users are dumbfucks. If you don´t double-, triple- and quadruplecheck other "zoophiles" you met online yourselves, then you´re screwed in practically no time. And as warcanine said, such an app would literally be an invitation to all those with malintent. Arpaio might be out of office now, but there surely are a lot of other sheriffs out there who still want to "drain the animal rapist swamp"...handing them over a tool to target the "target audience" efficiently is just dumb.
I also want to remind you that everything "computer" can and will be hacked sometime...hello, OpBeast!
I sometimes wonder what´s so fucking hard about using the old and tested forms of meeting another zoo. You meet online, you listen to what the other one has to say, you try to find out whether he´s real or not and if you feel comfortable, you have your first meet in RL in a neutral , crowded area, like a restaurant or a bar. Only if the other one has passed your face-to-face, you might think about exchanging addresses or phone numbers. Beware of the fakers, the impostors, the fantasizers, the weirdos. An app won´t help you with sorting out those with malicious intent, this will still be YOUR duty. With that given, I doubt such an app would do good. Yeah, such an app may diminuish some complications meeting someone from your area, but comfortable and safe are opposites. Either you are safe and that´s not comfy or you have an easy and comfortable way of contacting other "zoos", but that´s not the least little bit safe.
IDK what you folks are putting the emphasis on, but I´ll always prefer safety.
........why couldn't two people just arrange to meet at a nearby business on their own without putting their personal information into a weird website? Not being able to find an optimally-equidistant coffee shop or whatever probably isn't the barrier that's keeping people from meeting up.
Sounds like a great idea, officer!
I'm not quite sure if this app would be legal, after all zoophilia is not legal in most states. Even if that is not an issue, any "reaching out" is dangerous, especially if an app practically points out where you are. Even talking on this sub-reddit has its risks, however small they may be. Distribution of an app like would also be quite difficult as it must be done in such a way that only zoophiles get it, which in itself is pretty impossible. Otherwise, as others pointed out, it's more of a tool for the police to catch you, rather than a tool for zoophile meet-ups. If all states had zoophilia legalized, this could work quite well. Assuming of course you don't mind the risk of meeting an anti-zoo and not know what to expect out of them, in which the risk of something bad happening is quite high. So for the most part, unless zoophilia somehow manages to get accepted by other people, this app isn't really going to be helping anyone out, especially not in any state where zoophilia is illegal.
Distribution of illegal software is never a problem. Chinesse people are using illegal methods for bypassing the Golden Wall and warez are rampant on the Internet. Besides, zoophilia without sex is not illegal anywhere I know about and bestiality is not illegal everywhere either.
Zoophilia and bestiality often go together, and bestiality is illegal in a decent amount of states. (Bestiality and zoophilia are used interchangeably in law) This app may be seen as something promoting an illegal activity in the states where it is illegal, and that is why I pointed out legality. Distribution of illegal software may not be much of an issue, but it still complicates things a little bit. Especially if the distributer(s) get caught. I do understand the risk may be very small, but the real issue comes from people looking to undermine zoophiles in any way possible. I am of course talking about zoophilia with bestially, but I don't think many people understand the difference since the definition is so blurred. Talk about zoophilia, and bestiality is what most people think of. Oh, and I'm mostly talking about the U.S., I do not know much about any other country or their bestiality laws.
Aside from this just being a terrible idea I'm just not a fan a zoophile meet up app. Not like the majority of users would be using it to find friends, most people I assume would use it as an outlet such as tinder or grinder is used. :-/
Tips from the Internet underworld: In order to meet or establish a business with a pseudonymous party online, you need to ensure that most of the following requisites are met.
1- The pseudonymous party is a real entity (not just a troll trying to make fun of you)
2- The pseudonymous party is not hostile (not just somebody who wants to harm you)
3- The interactions are done in such a way that if the pseudonymous party turns to be hostile, the damage is reduced (for example, you use a escrow service for purchasing goods from pseudonymous parties).
4- Interactions with the pseudonymous party are private even if you are using Internet services that are compromised by hostile forces (end-to-end encryption, public key verification).
It is usually hard to meet the 4 the first time you establish an online relation.
This application fails at:
1- No identity verification is provided.
2- No safeguard against an hostile pseudonimous party is provided.
4- Fuzzy locations offer partial mitigation, but at the end of the day you have the pseudolocation of every user stored in a public distributed hash table.
The application offers some damage mitigation at 3 because the meeting is carried out in a public safe area, but the damage you can take from a botched meeting is still very high.
LONG STORY SHORT: BIG FAIL.
Underground people who needs to arrange meetings and businesses over the Internet often use reputation systems for solving 1 and 2. People involved in activities related to the community get certified by other community members and thus become trusted.
3 is often solved by using a trusted third party that helps with the arrangements. You don't meet the people who wants to buy the incriminating documents you stole from the prime minister, you have an agent that does that for you. Meetings work better when they are hosted by a trusted party, but public places work well too for some activities.
4 requires you not to use services that log your activities, to use very secure technologies, or to use massified services where you won't be noticed among the other 3 million users. It is an art in itself.
An anonymous prepaid phone with three-way calling is a much, much better 'app.'
It is also illegal in certain countries.
They force you to use cloned cards or stolen phones if you want any privacy. Government surveillance really needs to die.
That is... screwed up. Seriously screwed up.
I note you didn't list "straw purchase" on your list of options. There's also varying forms of VoIP over TOR...
Straw purchases are tricky, because in the sort of place where you need to make a straw purchase, the strawman needs to give an ID that goes straight into a registry.
Do you want to buy a phone plan that is not linked to your identity? If you have somebody else buy it for you, he will be giving his identity to the registry, and be accountable with what you do with said phone plan. Getting a willing participant will be complex. The real evil mobsters have tricks to use unaccountable phone plans (and credit cards and guns and anything else) if need be, but your average Joe Doe citizen is going to be easily traceable by the authorities and their allies.
VoiP over some sort of darknet can work very well, but getting your contacts to use it can be harder than expected. Good darknets also eat the battery of the phone extremely fast if you let them.
Homelessness is always a plus. :) Makes for cash-ready straw purchasers who... don't care.
Refusing to have contacts outside of it can help.
How To Get Arrested 101