ResearchGoddess

Here’s what Stealth Message can do:

• Encrypts your private messages
• Stores encrypted messsages anonymously
• Allows you to set security options, including self-destruct
• Automatically sends a message notification to recipients
• Prevents forwarding of messages
• Helps to prevent unwanted copying of messages
• Sends message notifications to your existing e-mail accounts
• Requires only that you and the receiver have access to e-mail and a browser

You can choose whatever user name you want, and you don’t even have to enter your email address in order to sign up. All you need to do is make sure that you and your recipient have agreed on a shared code to access messages sent through this system. Contact your friend or colleague prior to sending the message and agree on a secret code that only the two of you will share. You may always change it later (it is recommended you do this by telephone, in person, or through an alias e-mail address).

Here’s how it works:

You set yourself up with an account. Note: you don’t have to sign up with an email address if you don’t want to!
To send a message, you simply click Send A Message, type in your text (unfortunately it only supports simple text and not any HTML), and determine your security code. You can then choose Security Options: if you’d like it to self-destruct (so awesome!) or use anti-copying security.

Then, your recipient is notified by e-mail that there is a confidential message for them stored on the Stealth Message servers. They can click a link back to the Stealth Message site, enter their private code, and access the message. The first view of the message will be encrypted.

The recipient will be able to click on ‘Decode’ in order to see the confidential message. If the sender has established the message to self-destruct, the count-down will begin once the message is decoded. Self-destruction can be as quick as ten seconds or as long as 30 minutes.

Once the countdown to self-destruction is complete, the message will ‘fizzle’ and become red, and the recipient will not be able to retrieve it. Even clicking back on the original link from the email will not restore the message.

From a sender’s perspective, you can actually track when your recipient receives the message, and if it has self-destructed or not. Or, if you prefer, you can destroy the message before the recipient reads it.

The messages are untraceable and there are multiple back-up security systems in place to ensure that the content of your messages can not be accessed except by legitimate recipients. Special options help prevent recipients from accidentally making copies, forwarding your messages, or allowing them to be seen by prying eyes. The only issue is that the technology is optimized for IE and Netscape browsers and some Opera browsers experience a Javascript handling error that corrupts the encryption code. Some Mac operating systems may also experience problems.

How is this a recruiting tool? Consider confidentiality and its importance with some high-level executives. This might be a good way to get information to these individuals without raising red flags to any of their associates. Confidentiality is an important thing and unfortunately there are some bad apples out there who don’t protect this for their clients or their candidates. With that said, you can also use this tool to send confidential correspondence to your hiring authorities. Say you are working with a client on replacing an executive, but that person is unaware that they are going to be replaced. You can use Stealth Message to ensure absolute privacy in correspondence.

Plus, I just think this is a really awesome tool – self-destructing messages, high level encryption, I mean this just plays on the fantasy of being a oo7 spy! Now, I can truly feel like Magnum P.I. on the internet….