USC juniors create site to increase web safety
Portcard.net verifies users and collects information that authorities can use.
Taylor Friedman
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: News
Two USC juniors might save hundreds of lives before their college graduation.
Business administration majors Ricky Doyle and Paul Loeb teamed up to turn what began as a class project into a successful, national business that could potentially change the way people use the Internet, allaying parents' fears about whom their children are talking to on social networking sites.
The site, portcard.net, began as a marketing assignment and verifies that users of social networking sites are who they say they are. It encourages people to only network with individuals who have registered with the site.
"I have 14 cousins all under the age of 16, and they were using sites like Myspace, but their parents had no idea," Doyle said. "I was concerned about who they might be talking with."
Doyle asked Loeb to get involved with the project.
"Since freshman year … he was the tech guy, the technical know-how for everything. We both share the same entrepreneurial spirit," Doyle said.
The two put portcard.net on the Web.
Portcard.net allows people age 21 and older to authenticate themselves and their children's online usernames. The user fills in basic information and his or her Social Security number.
The site then pulls background information about the user from public databases and credit records, and the user must answer a series of randomly selected personal questions in less than a minute each. Examples include mother's month of birth, previous addresses and other questions that could not be answered with the contents of a wallet.
The time limit deters imposters from registering. The premise is that only the real person would be able to answer correctly in the allotted time frame, according to an instructional video on the site.
If the user passes the background test, he or she becomes authenticated. When the person logs on to various networking sites, other users will see a message that says that person's identity is validated. To ensure maximum online safety, people are encouraged to only engage in conversation with other authenticated users.
Business administration majors Ricky Doyle and Paul Loeb teamed up to turn what began as a class project into a successful, national business that could potentially change the way people use the Internet, allaying parents' fears about whom their children are talking to on social networking sites.
The site, portcard.net, began as a marketing assignment and verifies that users of social networking sites are who they say they are. It encourages people to only network with individuals who have registered with the site.
"I have 14 cousins all under the age of 16, and they were using sites like Myspace, but their parents had no idea," Doyle said. "I was concerned about who they might be talking with."
Doyle asked Loeb to get involved with the project.
"Since freshman year … he was the tech guy, the technical know-how for everything. We both share the same entrepreneurial spirit," Doyle said.
The two put portcard.net on the Web.
Portcard.net allows people age 21 and older to authenticate themselves and their children's online usernames. The user fills in basic information and his or her Social Security number.
The site then pulls background information about the user from public databases and credit records, and the user must answer a series of randomly selected personal questions in less than a minute each. Examples include mother's month of birth, previous addresses and other questions that could not be answered with the contents of a wallet.
The time limit deters imposters from registering. The premise is that only the real person would be able to answer correctly in the allotted time frame, according to an instructional video on the site.
If the user passes the background test, he or she becomes authenticated. When the person logs on to various networking sites, other users will see a message that says that person's identity is validated. To ensure maximum online safety, people are encouraged to only engage in conversation with other authenticated users.
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