Does anyone out there remember Inspector Gadget? Where at the start of every episode, Inspector Gadget gets a note containing his next mission, the final line of each of these messages states that, “This message will self destruct in 5 seconds.“ Have you ever been in a situation where you only wished you could self destruct one of your e-mails, texts or an inappropriate picture or two? Phew! I have.
Well now you can, a new app called Wickr saw the need for folks to be able to keep tighter security on their communications. Wickr, encrypts your messages, kills, metadata, lets you remain anonymous, lets you decide who gets to see your stuff, and for just how long they get to see it for (from a mere second or two, to a several days) before your message self destructs, leaving no trace. Boy, I wish I had that a few late night e-mails ago.
As soon as your predetermined “viewing period” is over, the application will write over the nudie… I mean, sensitive visual images with random data. This makes the data unrecoverable, even using special computer forensics software, even by law enforcement officials, even by your soon to be ex-wife or, the IRS, and most especially, your drunken best friend on a Facebook posting frenzy.
So, if you like your privacy and your bothered by the idea that Big Brother might someday like to take a look-see at what you’ve been up to, then there’s a free version of Wickr available at Apple’s App Store, and (thankfully) an Android app on its way. A premium (paid) version of Wickr is being developed that allows you more precise user-controls, like being able to extend the time period before messages are deleted. Check out mywickr.com for more info. Like Wickr says, the Internet is forever… That’s a little scary isn’t it?
