Are You Listening Mr. Gates? This E-mail Disappears!

by Doug Smith

http://web.archive.org/web/20000123163354/www.ed2go.com/news/invisimail.html

This e-mail will self-destruct in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

This is not a scene from E-mail Impossible, but a scene from e-mail probable. A new company promises e-mail that will disappear after a certain amount of time, without a trace. This is not normally encrypted e-mail; it is e-mail that goes away when you want it to. So, if you're a billionaire computer magnate worried about congressional anti-trust investigations, this could be for you! Actually, there are many practical uses for limited view e-mail, especially for businesses. 

Primarily, disappearing e-mail allows a user or business to control e-mail for its entire life. This makes it particularly safe for businesses to communicate sensitive information privately, internally, and to partners and clients. 

Disappearing Inc. promises to offer a system early in the year 2000 that will work with any existing e-mail program. E-mail will be sent encrypted, and can be tracked, authenticated, and deleted after a set amount of time. The life of the e-mail can be from a few minutes to a few years after being read by the recipient. All copies of the e-mail delete, even those stored on servers and network backups. 

The e-mail is first encrypted before it is sent, so unwanted eyes can't read it. When the e-mail is received, authentication is necessary, using an identification code or password. At the end of the indicated life of the e-mail, all electronically stored copies disappear for good. Of course, there is no way to keep a user from copying the e-mail text into another file format or printing the e-mail for safekeeping. 

So, what are the main advantages of disappearing e-mail over conventional e-mail? Regular e-mail technically doesn't "go away" when you hit delete. Most e-mail can still be found on a server or backup after a regular deletion. It is hard to make regular e-mail vanish after it is written and sent. The recipient also has a copy of the e-mail stored somewhere as well.

Further, e-mail can easily get into the wrong hands. There's no way to know who reads your mail after it is sent. You also may never know when or even if the right person has read your e-mail, if they have at all. 

Disappearing e-mail solves all these problems with its encryption, tracking, authentication and deletion processes. The system will work with your existing e-mail system, and you really don't have to change your regular e-mail habits. Messages are encrypted directly at the user's e-mail client and travel in encrypted form. Disappearing Inc. plans to offer these services for a mere $4 per user per month. 

The Disappearing Inc. system differs from some other e-mail security systems in that each e-mail is handled on an individual basis. Senders and recipients are also handled individually. Other security systems have cross platform compatibility issues, but the Disappearing system works with all systems without additional setup or installation. 

So, let's say I send a business-related e-mail to my associate Robert, detailing sensitive client listings for his eyes only. When I send the e-mail, a small filter is tacked on to the e-mail that notifies the Disappearing Inc. website. A routing number and individual key are assigned to the e-mail to scramble it. When Robert receives the mail, he opens the mail with the "key." I have already assigned a time frame for the mail to exist, using the assigned key. When the indicated timeframe passes, the key disappears and all copies of the mail self-destruct.

So, e-mail is not necessarily "forever" anymore. You still have to be careful what you say and who sees what, but Disappearing Inc. promises to make e-mail safer for the sending of sensitive information. This may cause some consternation for Internet lawyers who scour business and private e-mail for incriminating evidence!