When you send an e-mail, that message can sit in the recipient’s inbox forever. Even after it has been read, and perhaps replied to, the message is still there. If the recipient replies to your message, a copy of the message along with the reply is now saved in that person’s sent e-mail folder. If the recipient of your message forwards it to someone else there may be copies of your original message stored in e-mail inboxes anywhere in the world, all without your knowledge.
One way to help control the dissemination of your e-mail messages is to use self-destructing e-mail to send sensitive information. Self-destructing e-mail deletes itself after being read, or after some period of time chosen by the sender. Self-destructing e-mail works by storing your message on a server, and sending the intended recipient of that message a link where he or she can open and read your e-mail.
Once someone clicks on the link and opens the e-mail it is deleted from the server - thus self-destructing, or it is deleted after a set period of time whether it has been opened and read or not.
Of course, the recipient of your self-destructing e-mail could copy and paste the text of the message to another document, or take a screenshot of the message when it’s open. However, the idea of a self-destruction e-mail isn’t to keep the content out of the hands of the intended recipient, rather it is to keep the e-mail out of the hands of others.
As with all e-mail services, the administrator of the mail server has the ability, at least in theory, to compromise your e-mail. Therefore, as with any e-mail, sensitive information should be encrypted before being sent.
There are various self-destructing e-mail services available. Depending on the service you choose, the options available for your message may vary. Some allow you to set different message destruct times, others offer a password option so that the message recipient needs to know the password in order to open the link containing the message. Some services send the link to the message directly to the intended recipient, others just provide you with the link to the message, and you have to send that link to your intended message recipient by some other means.
Some self-destructing e-mail services include:
- https://www.intuitivepassword.com/en/Tools/OneTimeSecretNotes
- https://privnote.com
- https://cryptabyte.com/SelfDestruct/
- http://www.destructingmessage.com
- https://www.thismessagewillselfdestruct.com
- http://oneshar.es
- https://quickforget.com
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