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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

With Vanish, what happens on the web doesn't stay there

By: Amy Minsky

27/07/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed software, appropriately named Vanish, that is expected to give Internet users at least some control over the tracks they leave in cyberspace.

Bank account numbers. Home addresses. Phone numbers. Most people probably wouldn't volunteer this information to a stranger, yet millions use the Internet every day to send and store sensitive information, not to mention the countless secrets and embarrassing stories people share online. Everything communicated on the web has a really long shelf life, making it virtually impossible to leave the past in the past.

But using the University of Washington's new Vanish software, an Internet user could enter a text in an email, for example, then highlight it, right-click and press a button that codes the message, turning it into gibberish.

In order to render the message legible, the receiver highlights the gibberish, right-clicks on it and tells Vanish to decode it. After a period of time selected by the sender, the code will expire, permanently reverting the message to its encrypted state.

Because neither the sender nor the receiver ever knew the encryption code, the text doesn't risk ever being retrieved.

The only catch is, the sender has to trust the receiver to not print out, take a photo of, or cut and paste the text into a word document, said Roxana Geambasu, a doctoral student involved in the software development of the encryption device.

She said she hopes Vanish, currently available for download from the university's website, will help people gain at least a little more control over the "uncontrollable" web. "People need to realize the Internet is a really dangerous place, with almost no privacy."

Once someone uses the Internet to send a message or document, they have little to no control over the data. They also risk losing even more control over data, according to Hank Levy, chairman of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington.

Cloud computing -- storing information on the Internet instead of a hard drive -- is becoming more common as more people opt to use web-based word processors and email programs, such as Google's online word processor, Docs, or Microsoft's forthcoming online version of Office.

Although storing information online means it's accessible from any computer, it also means it's in the "cloud," an enormous data centre in cyberspace.

"In the Internet world, data never disappears," said Levy. "It has a potential to stay around forever."

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 27, 2009 A9

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