[pavel_lishin]

But for that use case, I have to tell the mob boss that I uploaded a secret to deadman.io. At which point he takes out his rubber hose collection, and gently persuades me to log in and delete the secret.

[ricardobeat]

You don't need to tell where, and you can use a one-off generated password that you really didn't memorize.

[duaneb]

A) The idea is that the "rubber hose collection" leads to you revealing where it is, and B) if it's a generated password, how will you stop the deadman's switch in the event of getting away?

[ricardobeat]

You ping the service by email/phone/SMS, not by logging in. But you have a point, you'd have to keep pinging it for the rest of your life and it would fire anyway when you die :)

[tbrooks]

Not necessarily.

You could say, I have a bunch of documents that implicate you and they'll be sent out to authorities should I not answer my email or phone at N time.

[pavel_lishin]

"I know you really don't want to tell me where those documents are, but maybe you'll tell my friend, Mr. Hosey?"

[m3ntat]

Maybe, but this is the case for any dead man's switch (even a bank/lawyer). It's always a balance between what the mob boss thinks he can get you to do vs the power of the dirt you have on him. Literature/TV have beaten to death the permutations/twists on this theme.