Privnote - send notes that will self-destruct after being read | Hacker News Reader

Privnote - send notes that will self-destruct after being read

privnote.com

24 pointsnickb21 comments

haha, this is great. Not that I'm doing to move my super-secret chocolate smuggling ring over to it or anything, but you know, when I need to send my ATM pin or something to someone it should be ok.

PGP Desktop has the only true "this message will self-destruct" feature, as far as I've seen.

PGP encrypted messages. Opened in a secure viewer. No copy and paste. No easy screenshotting (dx10 overlay if I'm not mistaken - bypassable, of course, but decent anyway). Close it and it's gone.

What if you run PGP Desktop under a modified QEMU that can log all changes to memory state in a particular program?

As I said - nothing is foolproof these days; and, besides, there are easier ways like using DX10 image-caputre programs.

  File-> save As

  ctrl-a ctrl-c ctrl-v

They even tell you

"This note has been destroyed so, if you want to keep it's content, you must copy it before closing this page"

Kinda defeats the purpose.

I'd pretty much guarantee that its real purpose is to serve as a simple but pleasant portfolio piece for a designer or developer, and that purpose isn't defeated by it being copyable.

But, I think the point of the service is that only one person can read it not that it can only be read once. They could prevent easy copying by using Flash, etc, but it that would be cruel, unusual (well, it should be usual), and wouldn't improve their offering.

Can you not screenshot Flash then?

Maybe they should warp it to look like a CAPTCHA AND put it in Flash with a camouflage background.

I think the key in my statement was easy copying. The inability to copy and paste clearly frustrates people, seeing as its the number one complaint against Scribd. But thanks for the sarcasm. ;)

You can copy and paste from Scribd documents: http://img.skitch.com/20080703-fqjkc23nr92t31htq42quirmhe.jp...

While it's probably not, doesn't this ring anyone else's bells as a phishing site?

I am not disappointed after having seen the website. I expected a fail in the security department. You can't really "self destruct" a message on the medium of a computer unless you have what amounts to some form of DRM.

There is a pretty glaring XSS vulnerability, though. I have informed them about it.

Yes, thanks for reporting!. It's fixed in the version we deployed today.

Wow, you guys are quick! It's looking good.

How do you make money with this - AdSense/Ads? Surely there's no "Subscriber Only" version.

Where does it say it is going to make money?

Why does everyone assume that every single online service or website launched has only one end-goal and that is to make money?

Especially seeing as these comments are made on HN - a decidedly money-making-free site itself.

"Trying to make bits uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet." -- Bruce Schneier

Great UI - nice and simple.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com