Wednesday 20 January 2010

My Thoughts on iTrust

A little piece in the Guardian yesterday caught my eye and the concept has been rattling around my head since.

There is now an iPhone app called "iTrust" which is designed to keep people from reading their partner’s emails. According to the article the application was written by 26 year-old Bob Nerberg from Oslo with help from his girlfriend. He insists that it will make relationships stronger and says, "It's something everybody thinks about in a relationship – is my partner reading my texts and emails? Now you can be sure."

What???

So what type of relationship does Bob Nerberg have with his girlfriend? Okay, I don't want to know that or really care to conjecture. But what does downloading this application really say about you and your relationship?

This application is great if you are a cheating philanderer or involved in any other dodgy type of business that you want to keep secret from your partner. Now I'm not saying that you should be open to your partner about EVERYTHING. It is, after all, rather nice to keep some sense of mystery in a relationship. But, aren't relationships meant to be established on trust? If you really feel that you must hide something from your partner because it may hurt them and/or possibly ruin your relationship, then you need to re-examine yourself and your motives not download an application that assists your unscrupulous ways.

This application is great if you don't trust your partner or are paranoid in general. If you are convinced that your partner is reading your texts, checking your Facebook account, etc., then by all means download this application. It will confirm one of two things: 1) your partner is a snooping busybody who either doesn't trust you or is out to get you or 2) you are troubled person with such an overinflated sense of self-importance you actually believe that people (your partner in particular) care enough about your business to read through your personal messages.

In a solid, healthy relationship you would have nothing to hide from your partner and would trust that they won't look through your phone without your knowledge.

So if you're in an unhealthy relationship, by all means download this application. It will make the dishonesty and lack of trust in your relationship even stronger and you can live unhappily every after.

One thing "iTrust" as confirmed for me is that I wouldn't ever want to date Bob Nerberg.

2 comments:

Robert L Pace said...

I see this as a useful app on a phone used primarily for business, where a lost or stolen phone could mean problems for the company. I'm with you on the personal application deal, however. Another question comes to mind as well. Why download a new app when one already exists with even the most basic of phones. It's called DELETE.

H~ said...

Oh and there's the option of the security code on all iPhones just to get on to the phone. I have one but not because I don't trust my partner. I don't want to lose my phone and have some stranger, colleague or student get into it.