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Bob sent an email to Alice with nothing much useful and tenuous ( but because it isn't useful it can ruin Bob's reputation if bad Alice decide to publish. )

Is there a way for Bob to include a suicide-after-a-specified-time macro inside the email or similar after the "Seen" flag is set, that is still paired to Bob and not lost on Alice's inbox?

Edit: I was thinking about a CURL request, that should be embedded somewhere, but then i will a shell PID and need Alice her credentials, this won't be possible by just opening the email.

curl --url "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/Inbox;UID=1" --user "user:password" -X "STORE 1 +Flags \Deleted"
curl --url "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993/Inbox;UID=1" --user "user:password" -X "EXPUNGE"

Thanks in advance.

guest
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  • Bob should think long and hard before sending that email. no matter what self-destruct scheme he envisions, screenshots exist. – Rostol Oct 03 '19 at 17:16
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    The only _100% effective_ way to let Alice see a message on a computer, but prevent her from having access to it later: Type the message on a computer in a locked room, without access to any network or any radios (wifi, Bluetooth, etc). Invite Alice into the room. Watch her to make sure she doesn't record the message. When Alice leaves, destroy the computer (thermite works wonders). -- Much easier to just write it on paper, and burn the paper later. – Ghedipunk Oct 03 '19 at 19:42
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    @Ghedipunk Golden comment – guest Oct 03 '19 at 19:44

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No, it's not possible. It would be difficult to implement securely, and also pointless because of all the ways to get around it. What if Alice saves the email externally? Or screenshots it? Or uses an email client that doesn't support macros? If something is displayed on someone else's screen, there's usually nothing you can do to prevent them keeping a copy of it forever if they want to (this is why even with all our clever cryptography, online piracy is still a thing).

However, if Alice won't realise immediately that it's something she wants to keep a copy of, you could achieve a similar effect by making a post somewhere on the internet - ideally your own website - and emailing her a link. Then you can delete the post, so the link is useless. Alice can still copy the message, but only if she does so before it gets deleted.

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