IFTTT

ifttt

When I am just thinking about stuffs and ideas pop up, I need to write them down, because I have a disgustingly bad memory. But paper and computer are not always on hand in these situations, so I need to rely on my phone. Now, the Evernote app for my phone is rather slow, and during that wait time for the app to load, I might lose my thought (this definitely happened in real life). Instead if I just text the thought to Evernote directly, chances of me forgetting decreases. I am impressed that APIs can be used as pipes to pass output of one program as input to another, essentially upgrading the Formula for Computer Art to become a chain.

I am however conflicted. A part of me is excited for the possibilities generated. But when I was giving IFTTT one permission after another to link my many isolated accounts, I grew fearful. One of the primary reasons I have many accounts is modularity; I do not wish to lose everything should any single account be compromised. However, now I am centralizing all my emails in Gmail, my files on Dropbox, and my notes on Evernote by giving all read-write access to IFTTT. What if IFTTT is attacked? What if IFTTT turns out to be not what it seems to be?

I also do not want to relinquish my direct control over my accounts; I refuse to allow something I did in one site to automatically change something else while I am not consciously aware of it, because some API is listening in on everything I do. So after testing out my recipe to make sure it works, I disabled it. I will only actively use IFTTT again when the gain in productivity far outweighs my loss of control.

One comment