Here’s a cool little piece of software- albeit not a terribly practical one. If you’re looking to send an email without leaving a direct digital paper trail- without there being any concrete record of the stuff you sent- give Burn Note a try. It’s pretty much exactly what’s written on the box- it’s a website that lets you send self-destructing messages to friends and contacts.
Once you’ve composed the message you want to send, you can access the options menu to modify a few things about how the message will be displayed. You can switch between plain text (which can be copied and pasted as the recipient desires), spy lens mode (which requires the recipient to hold down the mouse button and ‘sweep’ over the message to read it via a small lens) and a series of short phrases. You can also change the amount of time the recipient has to read it, or delete the time limit altogether- requiring the person who reads the note to click “burn it!” afterwards.
Burning the note deletes it entirely from the Burn Note servers, according to the developer. Furthermore, all notes that are not read within a 72 hour period are automatically ‘burnt’ from the servers. Finally, notes can also be password protected, so that, regardless of who has the link, only the person with the password can read it.
Signing up for an account isn’t at all necessary- all you gain is a confirmation message that lets you know that the person you sent the note to has read it, and the message has properly self-destructed.
Burn Note seems more of a novelty than anything- a fun way to send a secret message or two between friends-after all, even if the note is deleted, there’s a good chance that whoever’s read it has either copied,screen-capped, or recorded the message via live video. But hey, it’s still pretty nifty, right?
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