Hello All,
I was talking to a friend of mine and some how we got on the topic of him wanting to tell someone to f-off among other things. He expressed his desire to do so via email, but didn’t want to because then there would be written proof of him telling this person to DIAF. So, we came to the conclusion that the best way to do that would be to somehow be able to send an email that wouldn’t let you print it and would “self destruct” by deleting and shredding itself after being read. Does such a product exist? I would think that it would be useful for top secret communications and possibly sensitive corporate emails. I would think that the technology to make it happen would be easy to write, seems like it would be a matter of software code. Just curious.
Looks like a quick Google search gave me the answer. I should have done that first, my apologies. It does exist:
http://www.self-destructing-email.com/self-destructing-email/about.asp
Mods, feel free to delete thread if need be.
If you can display it on screen, you can save it. You can make the recipient have to jump through some hoops first, but it’s still not too hard.
I can’t tell from that page exactly how the self-destruction is supposed to take place, but I wouldn’t count on it working. There’s no way to prevent a screen shot being taken, even if it can prevent printing, saving, caching and forwarding.
Plus, the mere fact that you went through the trouble of sending a self-destructing e-mail would cast your motives into doubt.
Glancing at that website, it appears that all it does is send your email to their server and then provide the recipient with a link to view the email. Which makes sense since I couldn’t figure out any way for them to pull it back out of someone’s in box.
Don’t forget though, if they know you have that ability they could still take a (cell phone/camera) picture of the screen.
Really, the only way to tell someone to DIAF and not have it be provable is to do it over the phone or in person (and assume it wasn’t being recorded or listened to).
I’m sure this method is fine if you want to tell a jerk to go to hell, but if you’re going to make a threat against someone, I always advocate not doing it in writing (or on voicemail as I had to tell one of my employees once:smack:). Also, I don’t know if they keep the emails you sent and if they can’t be retrieved with a search warrant if need be.
Oh, keep in mind my friend wasn’t looking to threaten anyone. It was a co-worker he has issues with and wanted to tell them to f-off. His concern was of course getting fired for doing so. My advice was to let it go, not worth losing your job over telling someone off. But, I was curious if such a product existed.
The self destructing email sends you a link to a web page that lasts for only 60 seconds If you click anywhere on the message it goes away. I was able to get a screen capture of it because I knew ahead of time the mail was coming and like batman was prepared. If I received such a message without knowing it was first coming I would assume it was some sort of phishing scam and not click on the link to read the message.
I usually run pages without Javascript enabled (via NoScript) so I wouldn’t even need to be that prepared.
Spam Gourmet allows you many options, if not self destructing mail. You can send with a fake email that can’t be traced. You can even do it from your own email and get replies. Be careful if you don’t know what you are doing because you could end up exposing yourself. But this will work anonymously. There are other internet based fake email sites that I would suggest to avoid errors.
Bottom line: What’s in it for you? If it’s just personal satisfaction with no monetary gain, I’d say forget it. Tear an old phone book up if you can find one. Have a pillow fight. Revenge only takes your energy and makes you the slave of the situation.
I don’t think it would be possible to send one from inbox to inbox. The only way would be to send an executable in the mail itself. Unless you know details about their computer, it would have to be cross platform to run on windows, linux and mac. But they may also view it on their phone so include all the phone operating systems as well. Then hope their antivirus doesn’t flag it and hope they run it.
The technology exists for your friend to, you know, say it out loud. In most cases, all record of that disappears as soon as the message is received.
Ultimately, unless you transmit the message by telepathy, there’s a possibility that it can be recorded - because there are devices that record anything that humans are audiovisually capable of perceiving.
Since he’s being all passive-aggressive about it, maybe he could write it on a post-it and stick it to the guy’s monitor. Make sure to wear rubber gloves so they can’t get fingerprints.