Chris Shipley introduced one controversial product launch from the DEMOfall stage today: VaporStream, from Void Communications. VaporStream is a recordless communications platform. Users go to the site, enter their existing email address on the VaporStream system, and send a message. Messages are shown to the recipient as an image that can't be printed.
Vaporstream has a user experience that's similar to most web mail systems, but it's not email - at no time are the header and the message itself connected. None of the computers touching the communication cached the information. The notable change is that once a message is read, it's gone forever.
As the company points out, e-mail creates a permanent, time-stamped record that can be forwarded and copied. On the one hand, this provides accountability and a permanent record. On the other hand, it negatively impacts privacy. To deter spam on such a system, no users on VaporStream are anonymous; all e-mail addresses must be verified.
There are clear possibilites for abuse on this system, but then again, this sounds like something that the Electronic Frontier Foundation might endorse. (Disclosure note: Omidyar Network is a funder of the EFF.) Although the EFF recommended against another anonymous e-mail service called AdviceBox, that was because of inadequate privacy protections. In this online privacy primer, the EFF specifically recommends practices such as e-mail encryption, blocking e-mail forwards, and deleting e-mail after it's been read. Will VaporStream prove to be a champion or invade the individual's electronic rights?
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