The Dissapearing Text Message: Erasing Your Cyber Footprint

We've all experienced that drop-of-the-stomach feeling when we hit the "send" button on a text message before proof-reading. But the consequences of impulsive texting—or rash  social media updates—can be more serious than a comma splice or a misplaced vowel.

Shark Tank personality and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban has invented an app to help solve this problem. Cyber Dust allows users to send messages that last for only a finite amount of time before being wiped from cyberspace completely. A related app—Xpire—functions similarly, in that it allows users to set time limits on social media status updates. This ensures that future employers or college admissions committees will never see that 2 am tweet about last night's house party.

As Cuban reminds, "The minute you hit 'send' on any SMS/Text, any Snap, Tweet or any digital media, you lose ownership of it. But you don’t lose responsibility for it." While these apps may not erase this responsibly, they erase evidence of it.

Source: http://theodysseyonline.com/upenn/mark-cuban-thinks-friends-could-cost-future/67975