Instant Message Deniability for $40 a year

Want to play spy and use the e-quivalent of disappearing ink? $40 will get you a system that lets you send self-destructing messages through a company called VaporStream.

In a post-Gramm-Leach-Bliley world, will companies actually want to pony up for this, when many are worried about retaining records?

[Cofounder and chief technologist Amit] Shah and cofounder Joseph Collins Jr. hope that VaporStream's design and low cost, $40 per user annually, will attract companies swamped with the challenge of archiving business-critical e-mails and deleting those that are personal or inconsequential.

A company could tell employees to do all informal communications in VaporStream, for example. VaporStream will also be available for mobile gadgets such as BlackBerrys.

That's not to say that this is a natural for the business world. Financial services firms are likely to reject VaporStream because of regulatory requirements governing the retention of their electronic communications.

AP story.

Those who want something free and more integrated should try the Off-The-Record IM encryption project. It works with standalone IM clients such as GAIM, Trillian and Adium X (for Mac OS X). It's pretty darn simple, it scratches that spy itch and even better has deniablility and perfect-forward secrecy.

(Note: Should any software company ever have the word vapor in its title, especially when its announced software isn't available yet?)

Photo: HalloweenJack