Text to vanish in 40 seconds
LAHORE: Embarrassing, incriminating or just plain sensitive text messages that have a nasty habit of being forwarded on to friends, enemies and tabloid journalists could be a thing of the past with a new service that makes messages self-destruct after the recipient has read them. David Beckham and Shane Warne, who both faced newspaper allegations of affairs after they were exposed for sending raunchy text messages, will wish StealthText, apparently derived from military technology, had been invented a few years earlier. According to the Guardian, a British newspaper, mobile phone users with a Wap connection can download the service by texting “Stealth” to 80880. Self-destruction comes at a price: for 50p a text the technology enables the user to send the recipient a link to their message. Once opened, it disappears again after 40 seconds. To comply with legal requirements, when the message is deleted from the recipient’s phone the “paper trail” and log stay on a secure server for a period of time before it is completely deleted, but the recipient has no access to this server. “The ability to send a self-destruct message has massive benefits for people from all walks of life, from everyday mobile users through to celebrities and business people,” said Carole Barnum of the developers, Staellium UK. Those who find boyfriends and girlfriends cannot resist forwarding their intimate picture messages to their mates will also soon be able to take dodgy photos of themselves with impunity. Staellium is planning to launch similar self-destruct email, voice and picture message services next year. daily times monitor
dailytimes.com.pk |
