
Send Self Destructing E-mails - nmudgal
http://fade.li/
======
pyalot2
1) Open email in gmail (do not press display images)

2) Options on the right "Show Original"

3) Copy the URL that goes like:
[http://content.fade.li/selcouth/..](http://content.fade.li/selcouth/..). to a
new tab

4) Save image as

5) ...

6) Profit!

For added fun, somebody please go and register unfade.li, if you forward a
mail there, it OCR scans the image and sends you back the text.

P.S. sending email as images is one of the most stupid ideas that seems to
keep cropping up. It's not in any way making it impossible to get at the
email, but it just makes it extremely inconvenient to reply inline, or for
differently abled people to read your mail.

~~~
nwh
Alternatively take a screenshot.

~~~
pyalot2
it scrolls trough the lines, so screenshotting that is difficult.

~~~
eksith
There are a few plugins for FF available that capture the whole screen. Not
sure of any quirks though.

~~~
riquito
Menu File -> print -> print to file. You just got a nice pdf. No need of
extensions.

~~~
eksith
Which cannot be opened in SumatraPDF (the only reader I'll install since it's
open source) for some reason. Besides, an image is a lot easier to share, plus
I don't need a reader.

------
IanCal
The tone suggests this is playful, which is fine, since this is in no way
secure. The FAQ has a few misleading claims though

> Your email's content is encrypted using banking-grade algorithms (256 AES)
> and securely stored on our servers.

> No traces.

> We were also growing tired of news about privacy issues and claims of
> government reading our emails behind our backs… it all seemed very Orwellian

It feels like you're kind of suggesting these things are actually secure.

------
dingaling
Hmm, so the e-mails are routed through their infrastructure and then (
presumably ) some form of magic is injected and delivered to the recipient.

Upon opening, the content 'fades-out' and fade.li assure us that they delete
the content from their systems.

/me tries with disposable account

Aha, it renders the mail content as images. A bunch of basic HTML with the
GIFs inline, I used wget to pull them down but the metadata is corrupted. I'll
poke at them...

Aha2: animated GIF. Frame-by-frame 'writing' of the e-mail, then blanking-out.
Presumably they delete the GIF from their server when it has been served once.

Here's one ( safe for work! )

[http://imgur.com/jS2cvMr](http://imgur.com/jS2cvMr)

~~~
IanCal
It renders it as an image which fades and they seem to only allow one get for.

~~~
pyalot2
Yes, but if you don't display the image, there's no get, so when you put it on
a new tab, that's one get, and from there you can save it from the browser,
which isn't no more additional get.

~~~
IanCal
Yep, you can also check the original email and download the image directly.

------
INTPenis
The title itself is a paradox and any IT person should see that.

First rule of piracy people, if you can read, see or hear it then you can copy
it.

------
amvp
I did not realize you could setup a MX record for a wild-card subdomain. It
would seem like there are lots of applications for that setup - how come it's
not something I've seen dome more?

~~~
gingerlime
Good point. I thought this trick was the most clever thing here. Making all
email addresses instantly accessible as a sub-domain of fade.li.

As far as ideas, I'm actually thinking the complete opposite. Going _on
record_ \- like an 3rd party service that proves that you sent an email to a
person at a certain date and time in case of a later dispute. e.g.

youremail@google.com.prove.it

------
7952
What apps like this do is create social pressure on people to not copy things.
If you use SnapChat it is obvious that you want the communication to be
treated with more "sensitivity" than a Facebook post.

The common complaint that it is impossible to self destruct data is obvious to
most people. If it is technically impossible to make something un-shareable
then the only thing you have left is social convention.

------
borplk
I have a sudden urge to send an email to dowhile@fade.li.fade.li

~~~
StavrosK
This will just email dowhile@fade.li in the end.

------
1angryhacker
Cool idea, well executed. Has obvious flaws & security issues but it could be
a bit of fun.

Anyone else find the landing page a little bit overwhelming for such a small
app? All the pictures of people having a great time seem a little over the
top?

------
andyhmltn
Everyone's pointing out that these can be saved and they address this in their
FAQ. It seems the purpose is not to stop the other person viewing the message
more than once on their end (snapchat-ish) but to stop emails being recorded
by email providers/governments.

EDIT: Looking through their privacy statement:

"Hence messages are to be sent at the risk of the user. Information such as
messages, time, date, name of the receiver and sender are also logged by us.
We also collect and use aggregated or de-identified information."

IANAL but that looks to me that they are storing messages?

~~~
zapu
But with minimal effort, they can be, but it would have to be somewhat
targetted attack against this particular service.

------
sarreph
Seems like an interesting concept. It's easy to complain about the ability to
screenshot/save the .GIF file; any application that tries to do this, such as
SnapChat, will suffer from the same problem as there is always a way to
circumvent services like this. They appeal because of their fun factor, and
not a supposed ability to be ethereally secure.

------
h2s
Finally, DRM for email!

~~~
ozh
And it works with MSIE6, too!

~~~
ravirdv
it also works with most of the mobile browsers.

------
JanezStupar
This kind of defeats email as a medium doesn't it?

Also I am supposed to trust (yet) another third party who hasn't got a neck in
the game to keep my privacy?

Sorry I don't get it.

------
vbuterin
Incoming:

"Hey, could you resend that? I opened it and then had to switch to another tab
for a few seconds, but when I got back the message was already 90% gone"

------
peterwwillis
Is there any effort put into preventing this being used for harassment? I can
already see the death threats and scare tactics this will be used for.

------
cdoxsey
[http://www.badgerodon.com/tools/self-
destruct/](http://www.badgerodon.com/tools/self-destruct/)

------
ta_nokmioot
this is probable the worst idea I've seen emerging from the Snowden leaks
aftermath.

It's not secure, it's not accessible and I fail to see how it protects privacy
of defeat surveillance in any way, actually all your emails are now belonging
to another third party, namely fade.li.

oh and the emails and not even self destructing.

Use openGPG instead.

------
aaron695
I think most people so far are missing who the target audience is.

~~~
kunil
and who are they? Serious question.

------
adrow
Didn't work with an email to my Fastmail account.

~~~
partha-shah
may be corporate email policies.
[http://fade.li/faqs.html](http://fade.li/faqs.html)

------
chatman
I am going to apply for job positions using fade.li.

------
jpmatz
Kinda "Snapmail". Kinda brilliant.

