LEAVE NO TRACE OF YOUR ELECTRONIC CORRESPONDENCE
Before email, we sent letters to each other and in the business
world, they were like mini-contracts. Whatever was said in those
documents could be used to confirm agreements, conditions, promises
made, whatever. Now when you call someone, there's no record of what
was said so unless the conversation was being recorded, there really
is no way to prove what was said. Of course the conversation may
have been recorded but that's still illegal in most states unless
both parties agree to being recorded, and there's an audio tone
being heard every few seconds on the recording. But you can't always
call someone so we still need to correspond.
To do that today we mostly use email because it's faster, cheaper
and easier than licking stamps. But like those letters of yore,
email still carries a virtual trail with it that can be used to
confirm whatever was typed within. So how can you electronically
correspond today and maintain the advantages of a verbal
conversation? That's what a new service called VaporStream is
offering and it really works.
The way to use VaporStream is pretty straightforward. Everyone to
whom you want to correspond with must first set up a VaporStream
account. Remember that you had to set up an email account to use
email, a Facebook account to use Facebook, etc., so this really
isn't an unreasonable requirement. Once done, you can begin typing
anything you want to send and read anything sent to you. The only
difference here is that whatever you send and receive can't be
saved. After you read it and close the page, it's gone just like a
telephone conversation after you hang up.
Now I can already guess what you're thinking. Why not just print it
out and save it? Or you could do a screen printout or even take a
photograph of the screen, right? Or maybe you could capture the
image in the browser cache. Well according to VaporStream, they've
designed their technology so that you can't use the browser's Back
button to display the image and the info isn't held in the browser's
cache. It's also engineered so you can't print out a VaporStream
correspondence screen. But you know what? Even if you could do all
of the above, it wouldn't make a difference anyway. That's because
there is no information on the VaporStream screen that displays who
typed it. So even if you find some way to capture the text, it
doesn't really matter since there's no way to prove who typed it to
you and someone could easily say that you just typed it yourself. In
other words, there's no way the correspondence can be used for or
against you in a court of law because there's nothing to show who
typed it. Clever, huh?
So how do you know who's corresponding to you? Just as in a phone
conversation, you know the person who is on the other end of the
line when you speak to them and they know who you are as well. In
the same way, from the subject matter within the correspondence,
there should be enough information in there for you to know the
person who sent it to you. That's pretty much it.
VaporStream offers a truly recordless messaging solution. I haven't
seen anything like it. For starters, emails are easily identifiable.
And even if you delete them, they can be recovered and copies can
typically be found and recovered on email servers. Even Instant
Messages can be logged, identified and traced and IMs require that
both parties be online at the same time. So if you want to write
something that can be opened by someone later on, and you don't want
any record of it to remain somewhere out there after it's been read,
then VaporStream is something you're going to want to check out. By
the way, if you're thinking of using VaporStream for something bad
or illegal, think again as VaporStream subscribes to Federal
Wiretapping laws and you will be held accountable.
VaporStream works with any computer that can access the Internet and
supports most browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.
There's even a free iPhone app to send and receive VaporStream
correspondences. You begin with a free 30 day trial and then it
costs $7.50 a month.
Now whatever you have to say to someone, you can rest assured that
your correspondence will never come back to bite you.
www.vaporstream.com
| Craig Crossman is
a McClatchy-Tribune newspaper columnist writing about computers and
technology. He also hosts the nation's longest running nationally syndicated radio talk show on
computers and technology, Computer America, heard on both the Business TalkRadio
Network® and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network®, weeknights at 10PM Eastern
time. Visit his website at http://www.computeramerica.com |
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