Text messages are great, but they have the annoying property of being out of the sender's control as soon as they're sent. That's resulted in all kinds of fun for the Internet, and it's also presented a big opportunity for a security company to pick up the slack and impose some sanity and privacy on these communications. A new start-up called Wickr is aiming to do just that with a mobile app that enables users to send anonymous, encrypted texts, photos and videos that self-destruct after a set time period and leave no trace for snoops.
Wickr is designed as a way for users to have complete control of not only how their communications are transmitted and stored, but also how long they're available to anyone, even the recipient. The company, which launched its app this week, is the creation of several security experts, including Robert Statica, a professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Kara Coppa, a former defense contractor and network security operator, Christopher Howell, a former computer crime and forensics investigator, and Nico Sell, who is well-known in security circles as one of the key movers behind DEFCON and Black Hat and has been involved as a founder or adviser of several security companies.
The Wickr founders aim to make traceable communications the exception, rather than the norm, and to return control of private communications to the user.
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