Security Startup DSTRUX Gives All Your Files the Snapchat Treatment

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Image: Mashable composite. iStockphoto, Vilisov

By Todd Wasserman2014-04-11 12:19:13 UTC

If you've ever hit "send" and regretted it, then DSTRUX is for you.

DSTRUX, a seven-person New York startup, on Friday released a cloud-based technology by the same name that lets you send photos and documents that you can destroy remotely. For instance, if you sent a Word document to a friend via Gmail, you could give your friend 10 minutes to look at it before it dissolved. You could also prevent your friend from forwarding the document.

In addition, DSTRUX makes it impossible for the recipient to take a screen capture of the image or document (support for video is a few months off) you sent. Nathan Hecht, CEO and founder of DSTRUX, says his company is working on using the PC's built-in camera to recognize objects like a phone on a camera that could take a picture of the screen as well. Hecht says that technology will be available this fall.

Available for desktop (the mobile version is coming in a few months), DSTRUX has obvious utility for legal agreements, staff memos and, yes, naughty pictures exchanged between consenting adults. It's also free and can be activated with your Facebook or Google account. You don't need to sign up to DSTRUX. The product is also free for the first three months. Pricing has not been announced beyond that point.

Hecht recently demonstrated DSTRUX to Mashable. This is the screen you see when you want to send a file:

After you drag the file, you can decide how long the recipient will be able to view it. You can also decide whether it's forward-able or not. Both functions are fluid: If you initially set the viewing time for 30 minutes, you can extend it to three weeks. If the recipient starts forwarding the message, you can remotely disable her ability to do so and make the file dissolve in real time.

On the receiver's end, the file initially appears blurry until you press the space bar. Then you can view it, but if you try touching other keys, it becomes blurry again, making a screen grab impossible.

Hecht says once a document or file is destroyed, it is wiped from the server and no longer exists.

Founded last July, DSTRUX has received $1 million in funding so far from a private source. The company's introduction comes after Facebook reportedly offered $3 billion to buy Snapchat, whose messages self-destruct after 10 seconds. In January, Confide launched an app that lets professionals send encrypted messages that automatically disappear so users can have "off-the-record" conversation.

TigerText also launched a self-destructing text message service in 2010 for general consumers and shifted the following year to focusing more on enterprise use. Gryphn, which bills itself as a secure texting tool with the self-destruct feature for business use, launched in early 2013.

Hecht says he realizes that there are potential competitors in the space. He's hoping that Google and Facebook aren't among them. "If Google and Facebook see this and we get some traction and say 'Wait, let's do this,' they're going to say 'Wait, they're already doing this on our own platform. So we're going to compete with a guy who's already on our own platform?' So in my twisted mind I was like 'Google and Facebook would say maybe we should scoop these guys up or back them rather than compete with them because then they'd just be competing with someone who's enhancing our platform."

Topics: Business, dstrux, security, Startups