Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a new encryption system that allows users to take control over the lifetime of their data. After the user-specified auto-destruct time has gone by, the encrypted data will then become unreadable.

If you wish to use the system online, Vanish is available via an easy to use Firefox extension. How can you use it? Let’s say you want to send some confidential information via Gmail to one of your online contacts. All you need to do it to compose your text, select it with your cursor, right click it, and then select the “Vanish” option. This will garble the information and make it readable only to others who also have the Vanish plugin installed, as long as they read it in the author-established time-frame. If the recipient waits to long, the data will simply become unreadable.

Here’s a quick video presentation of the product:

Would you use Vanish, and if so, how or why would you use it? Do you think the system is flawed? Let us know in the comments section below!

[Vanish]