Stupidity insurance!
TigerText: An iPhone App for Cheating Spouses
By Belinda Luscombe
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tiger Woods, if you're reading this, remember that you've been through what mothers call a "valuable learning experience" and you're probably a "better man for it" and so on. Having said that, an iPhone app that launched on February 25 could totally have saved your hide.
Called, coincidentally enough, TigerText, it allows users to set a time limit on how long a text that they send will hang around after it has been read. When that lifespan has been exceeded, the message will disappear, say the developers, from the recipient's phone, the sender's phone and any servers. The message cannot be forwarded anywhere, stored anywhere or sold to any tabloids for an undisclosed sum.
It works like this: when, say, a prominent Southern politician sends his mistress an iPhone message via TigerText, the mistress will be prompted to install the app. When she has done this, she can read the message, but she can't keep it. In fact the message is never actually sent to her phone — it's stored on Tiger Text's servers. After the timespan that the politician specified has elapsed — anywhere from one minute to five days — the message ceases to exist. There's even a "Delete on Read" setting, which counts down from 60 after it's opened, and erases the text at zero.
For those who need an even more comprehensive covering of their tracks, the "delete history" option will wipe any evidence of a given phone call. No tell-tale suspicious numbers, no chance of getting caught out by the old Press Redial routine.
While the implications for philanderers — and spies — are obvious, the app was not actually developed for them, says founder Jeffrey Evans, a former recruiter and headhunter, and not, at least on the basis of one interview, a particularly paranoid guy. The name was in place before the Tiger texting scandal, he claims, and the company decided to stick with it. Evans' real concern is about privacy. "People text like they talk," he says. "And some of the things they say, taken out of context, can come back to haunt them."
He points out the European Union ruled in 2006 that phone and internet providers were required to keep all cell phone and email data for a certain period of time. "That just seems wrong, and an invasion of privacy," he says. "We have not caught on to the implications of all these conversations being kept for so long." While he acknowledges that the app might also be a boon to teens who are in the habit of sexting, drunk-texting, or "running off at the thumb," he thinks lawyers and their clients, or business executives involved in a complicated deal will be even more interested.
Obviously there are times when you just shouldn't hit send; at it's most basic level, Tiger-Texting is like paying $2.50 a month for stupidity insurance. But let's face it, who among us has never needed a do-over?
By Belinda Luscombe
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tiger Woods, if you're reading this, remember that you've been through what mothers call a "valuable learning experience" and you're probably a "better man for it" and so on. Having said that, an iPhone app that launched on February 25 could totally have saved your hide.
Called, coincidentally enough, TigerText, it allows users to set a time limit on how long a text that they send will hang around after it has been read. When that lifespan has been exceeded, the message will disappear, say the developers, from the recipient's phone, the sender's phone and any servers. The message cannot be forwarded anywhere, stored anywhere or sold to any tabloids for an undisclosed sum.
It works like this: when, say, a prominent Southern politician sends his mistress an iPhone message via TigerText, the mistress will be prompted to install the app. When she has done this, she can read the message, but she can't keep it. In fact the message is never actually sent to her phone — it's stored on Tiger Text's servers. After the timespan that the politician specified has elapsed — anywhere from one minute to five days — the message ceases to exist. There's even a "Delete on Read" setting, which counts down from 60 after it's opened, and erases the text at zero.
For those who need an even more comprehensive covering of their tracks, the "delete history" option will wipe any evidence of a given phone call. No tell-tale suspicious numbers, no chance of getting caught out by the old Press Redial routine.
While the implications for philanderers — and spies — are obvious, the app was not actually developed for them, says founder Jeffrey Evans, a former recruiter and headhunter, and not, at least on the basis of one interview, a particularly paranoid guy. The name was in place before the Tiger texting scandal, he claims, and the company decided to stick with it. Evans' real concern is about privacy. "People text like they talk," he says. "And some of the things they say, taken out of context, can come back to haunt them."
He points out the European Union ruled in 2006 that phone and internet providers were required to keep all cell phone and email data for a certain period of time. "That just seems wrong, and an invasion of privacy," he says. "We have not caught on to the implications of all these conversations being kept for so long." While he acknowledges that the app might also be a boon to teens who are in the habit of sexting, drunk-texting, or "running off at the thumb," he thinks lawyers and their clients, or business executives involved in a complicated deal will be even more interested.
Obviously there are times when you just shouldn't hit send; at it's most basic level, Tiger-Texting is like paying $2.50 a month for stupidity insurance. But let's face it, who among us has never needed a do-over?
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 7:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home