FAQ

Kibu is an encrypted collaboration platform that brings in-person trust and security to your virtual interactions. Organizations use Kibu to protect confidential workflows, assets, and communications. Kibu users create encrypted spaces called Kibu Pods to collaborate privately and securely with verified members.

Kibu pods are end-to-end encrypted spaces for private, secure collaboration between verified members. Members can protect confidential workflows, assets, and communication, knowing exactly who is on the other end.

You can download the Kibu iOS application here (Android app coming soon). While anybody can download the application and join an existing Kibu Pod, creating new Kibu Pods requires being a licensed member of an organization. You can create an organization here. When you sign up, you will have a free trial license that you can claim from the Kibu mobile app. Once your trial license expires, you will need to contact us to add licenses to your organization to continue creating Kibu Pods.

Kibu’s privacy and security–the features that make it a powerful tool for teams looking to protect their collaboration– make it a potentially exploitable tool in the wrong hands. As noted in our Terms of Service, Kibu is intended to be used for lawful business and governmental purposes.

As a result, we require that all Kibu Pods and their creators be tied to a parent “Organization”  with a name and  a verified email address. In the case of a breach of our Terms of Service, Kibu may be required to provide this email address to lawful requests by law enforcement agencies in the United States of America.

Like these other apps, Kibu uses end-to-end encryption to protect the activity within Kibu Pods. However, Kibu is different in some important ways that make it preferable for teams requiring high confidence that their work is being protected. 

Unlike these apps, Kibu does not rely on vulnerable identifiers like emails, passwords, or phone numbers for individual user accounts. Instead, your Kibu account is tethered to your mobile device and its biometrics (e.g., Apple’s FaceID). This means that you, and only you, on your  mobile device can access your Kibu account. 

Additionally, Kibu users are not searchable or discoverable like they are on other apps. Only people you invite and verify can collaborate with you in a Kibu Pod.  As a result, Kibu is not susceptible to phishing attempts, spamming, and malicious bots like many other apps.

To add new members to a  Kibu Pod, the invited member(s) must first provide a response that includes a photo. The existing pod members must then review this response and vote to admit the new member(s). Voting is also used to gate critical actions within Kibu Pods, such as approving shared documents, transactions, and other decisions. This enhanced group verification process dramatically increases the trust and security of Kibu Pods compared to other apps.

When you join a Kibu Pod, you have access to the entire encrypted history of the Pod, including activity that occurred before you joined. This makes Pods more useful for teams than these other apps.  The activities inside a Kibu Pod create an auditable, immutable record of the membership, shared documents, messages, and voting that has taken place inside that secure Pod.

Because your Kibu account is tethered to your mobile device and its individual biometric settings, if you lose your phone, you will have to create a new Kibu account on your new phone. For security reasons, there is currently no way for an individual Pod member to access a previous Kibu account on a different device.

However, your fellow Pod members will be able to vote you back into any or all of your previous Kibu Pods. You can then vote to “remove” your old account from those pods. You will still retain access to the entire encrypted history of your Pod once you are readmitted.

If your device is using iOS FaceID, your FaceID settings can be changed using only your iOS device passcode. Because of this, your Kibu account is tethered to your FaceID settings at the time your Kibu account is created. Otherwise, anybody who knows your device passcode could update your FaceID and access your Kibu account on your phone, which we want to prevent for security reasons.

If your FaceID settings are updated on your device, your individual Kibu account will be deleted. However, your fellow Pod members will be able to vote you back into your Kibu Pods. You can then vote to “remove” your old account from those pods. You will still retain access to the entire encrypted history of any or all of your Pods once you are readmitted.

If you delete the Kibu app from your device, your individual Kibu account will also be deleted. You will have to download the Kibu app and create a new account. However, your fellow Pod members will be able to vote you back into any or all of your Kibu Pods. You can then vote to “remove” your old account from those Pods. You will still retain access to the entire encrypted history of each Pod once you are readmitted.