Patent filed for self-destructing email

Nearly 50 years after it was made popular by the TV show "Mission: Impossible," the self-destructing message could inch closer to reality very soon.

 

US telecom firm AT&T has sought a patent for a system of self-destructing emails with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

"Mission: Impossible" first aired in 1966 starring Peter Graves, Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Greg Morris.
 

"When a self-destructing e-mail message is received, the destruction date associated with the e-mail message is identified and the message is destroyed at the specified time," read the abstract of the patent.

 

The patent also allows the email sender to set the time period for the destruction of the message.

 

Also, the e-mail client app can limit the number and type of operations that may be performed on a self-destructing e-mail.

 

The patent application was filed on Nov. 30 last year.

 

A separate article on FierceTelecom.com said the e-mail client app can also destroy the e-mail message once it has been opened and closed by the recipient.

 

"All instances of the e-mail message are deleted from the recipient's computer," it said.

 

It quoted AT&T as saying that since present e-mail systems do not allow the sender to specify a time for destruction of the email they send, senders "cannot be certain that a sent e-mail message containing time sensitive information will ever be deleted."  — ELR, GMA News