This website will self-destruct...

[dipsydoodle]

Read it quickly: this article will self-destruct in eight hours.

Not really, of course - but soon, permanently vanishing web correspondence could be the next step in maintaining your privacy online.

Emails, Facebook messages, and Google Docs can all be set to disappear into thin air by using new software developed by the University of Washington and called, appropriately enough, Vanish.

"We wanted to create a system that would allow our data to self-destruct and become permanently unreadable," assistant professor Yoshi Kohno, who designed the software, told the BBC's Digital Planet programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8197449.stm

[RandomThoughts]

1. If it is optional, that could be a good idea.

But persistant records of everyday communications, if people do not think of them as a privacy issue, and if they are not used for nefarious collection of information, I think are a good thing.

I think one of the reasons I post, is the thought that the posts last awhile, some way to share thoughts, maybe even leave a little of yourself behind. Might sound weird, and it doesn't have to be real, but in some way posting is like a journal, some way of sharing thoughts.

Odd thought maybe.



If all posts did that, the world could be in a dark age. Although I do know those that believe in temporal lore actually think that is how information is gathered, by the records in the future of society today. I don't believe that stuff, but some that do believe in that actually like the idea of removing all records for those reasons.

[Indenturedebtor]

2. Don't kid yourself. We will be remembered by our cheap plastic goods

So go out now and buy a gatorade and a toaster... they are your true shot at immortality.