So today, I was reading the most recent issue of Time Magazine with bribing children for good grades on the cover. Kara got me this subscription for graduation, which has come into great use as a journalism major and just to see what's going on internationally rather than in the US or Columbia, plus Laura has me addicted to Joel Stein columns.
The technology section is usually pretty interesting, introducing me to multiple cool gadgets but never really anything ideal for students, just things that are good to know exist. So this one came up today called the TigerText program and I highly advise you to read this article, "Without a Trace."
Essentially this program available on Smartphones (like iPhones, Blackberries, etc.) allows the sender "to determine how soon after it is opened it will be erased from TigerText's server. The recipient cannot forward or save the message."
It made me cry. I can't identify quite the feeling, but the aspect of how nobody will have proof of anything anymore puts tears in my eyes. Even if teenagers delete calls or texts from their call history, in the past couple of years there are ways for the provider to save such records. But with an external program that literally will "self-destruct" text messages, only horrible things can happen.
Besides the whole gossip and information side of it, there's so much more. Girls who are being sexually harrassed are in a horrible position of sex offenders are using these tools on their phones. Adults who are cheating in their relationships are probably rejoicing, which puts more tears to my eye. What are government officials going to send to each other? What level has 'privacy' come to that people are sending something in a text message SO private and untrustworthy in another person's record that it must disappear?
I'm sorry, but if you have something so important to tell someone that it can't be on a record or trusted in someone's phone, you can tell them in person.
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