TECH NOW: Chat apps that keep snoops at bay

Snapchat home page.(Photo: USA TODAY)

Story Highlights

• Frankly app encrypts photos, text messages
• App will notify a user when other users screengrab messages, photos
• 100% percent privacy online "isn't realistic"

Self-destructing apps: Perfect to keep cybersnoops at bay — or social snafu?

A new app called Frankly^[1] promises to let people speak freely and anonymously with a one-two privacy punch. The free service encrypts text or photo messages and deletes them 10 seconds after they're opened. The company says its mission is to create a safe place for people to have a private, in-person-like conversation — in the digital world.

But as a mom of a tween, this quite frankly scares me, because it sounds an awful like Snapchat, the well-known and wildly popular app that also sends messages that are supposed to vanish forever. But they don't. Not if someone takes a screengrab and passes them around for the whole world to see. Whether fairly or not, Snapchat's now often referred to as a playground for teen sexting, and cyberbullying.

TALKING TECH: Snapchat's young audience fuels a growth streak^[2]

Frankly's security team says it thought of all the loopholes, and like another anonymous-text app called Wickr^[3], added several extra layers of security. It never shows the names of the participants on the same screen as the message — it lets you un-send unread messages. If one person does try to sneak a screengrab, the other is notified immediately.

These apps could be great in certain circumstances — like sending your credit card number to your spouse.

Still, I'm skeptical because 100% privacy online just isn't realistic, and sometimes the person you have to worry about the most when it comes to safeguarding your secrets is you.

Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy award-winning consumer tech contributor and host of USA TODAY's digital video show TECH NOW. E-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.^[4]. Follow her on Twitter: @JenniferJolly^[5].