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michael_cooney
Senior Editor

Self-destructing SMS

Opinion
Dec 14, 20051 min
Data Center

Privacy-conscious Brits who love SMS have a new service right out of Mission Impossible.

British firm Staellium has developed a program allows SMS messages to self destruct on subscribers’ phones 40 seconds after they’re read. The BBC is reporting that the service is attracting attention “from businesses, the Ministry of Defence [and] celebrity agents,” and that thousands have already signed up for the service, which began operation last Sunday.

Those who use the service will have to pay 50 pence for each destroyed text message and sign up for a minimum of 10 messages, but they’ll know anything incriminating will vanish from their phones in less than a minute.

Last year the British tabs had a field day when embarrassing text messages sent by football god David Beckham to his female personal assistant were leaked to the press.

Via BBC News