Keep me accountable! Send my friend a notification when I open a file?

July 13, 2024 4:42 AM

I want my friend to set the Screentime password on my Mac and not tell me. If I really need to bypass it, I can call my friend. But if I need to bypass it and they aren't contactable... Is there a way to store the password somewhere online, such that they will get notified if I ever access it?

It seems like neither Google Drive nor Dropbox can send notifications when someone accesses a shared folder. Is there another simple way to set this up?

posted by pablocake to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

The quickest way would be for your friend to create a burner gmail account and set a vacation message that includes the password. They wouldn't get immediate notification but your mail will still be in that inbox as a record any time they check. (auto replies are only sent once every four days though)

A fancier way would be to set up a template in a gmail account that includes the password, and create a filter that sends the template when it gets email from your address with the subject "givemenow". Setting up templates can be painful though.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:26 AM on July 13 [3 favorites]

If they're willing to go through the hassle, they could set up a handful of one-time links.

It seems like this version has everything you'd need : https://singleuse.link/
posted by demi-octopus at 6:49 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]

The desktop version of Dropbox has a preference to send notifications when shared files and folders are opened by others. So your friend could toggle that preference on, and they should then be notified when you access the folder.

It's a global setting, though, so your friend would be notified when anyone accesses a file or folder they have shared on Dropbox. I suppose they could set up a free account to be used only for this purpose, if that would otherwise be annoying.

More info: https://help.dropbox.com/account-settings/notified-changes
posted by brianogilvie at 7:26 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yay these are all great solutions! Thanks so much folks! I went with the one-time link just because that was simplest. Thanks for helping me curb my screen time; this will be a big help.
RantAlert: I really wish we didn't have to work so hard to defend ourselves against the attention economy : /
posted by pablocake at 8:05 PM on July 19