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SALT LAKE CITY — Sending sensitive information via email can be nerve wracking; what might be personal or secret information can be stored indefinitely and forwarded without the sender's control.
AT&T is taking issue with that and fighting to give people more control over the lifetime of sent emails. The phone service company has filed a patent for self-destructing emails. The message's sender could dictate a period of destruction for the message along with the email.
The patent also notes the email sender could control the "number and type of operations that may be performed on a self-destructing e-mail," meaning the sender could prevent the message from being saved or forwarded.
"The inability to control the number and type of operations that may be subsequently performed on a sent e-mail message makes conventional e-mail systems unsuitable for sending confidential information for which absolute control of distribution is a necessity," the patent application reads.
Being able to set a time for destruction puts the control back in the hands of the sender, and without a trace the email would be gone. In light of recent controversy around the National Security Association's Internet probing, the patent signals a continued shift toward more privacy.
Related:
'Deleted' Snapchat photos saved in phone data, can be examined as evidence
Not so fast, Snapchat. Those 10-seconds-or-less pictures appear to have a much longer life, deep inside of smartphones.However, this won't be the first self-destructing messaging system on the market. Several messaging apps offer a similar premise — timed messages that disappear into the Internet oblivion.
One example is Snapchat, an image-driven social app that allows users to take a photo and set a timer for anywhere between one and 10 seconds. The recipient can only see the the image for however long the sender dictates and then the message disappears.
In the case of Snapchat, digital forensic examiners found a way to find and see the images after they had been deleted, nullifying the point of the app to some. However, AT&T plan for their system to be trace-free and permanently delete the emails.
Other similar time bomb messaging systems include Burn Note and Wickr, but don't extend to the common email.
