So I just recently started reading into Self-Destructing emails trying to learn how they work but I am unable to find much relevant, technical information.
I'd like to know exactly how this works from a technical perspective so if anybody knows some good reading material or could give me a good overview that would be awesome!
Self-destructing emails aren't emails as you'd think of them. The contents of a self-destructing email always remain on the server providing the destruction. When you send an email, it stores the data on the server and sends a regular email to each addressee. The regular email typically provides a link to the self-destructing message. This is a web page containing the true content of the email.
The email's content will be deleted based on the policies of the site. Typically this is after some time and/or shortly after being viewed.
The web page will implement various technologies to make it more difficult to be copied. One trick is to display an image of the text to make it more difficult to copy-and-paste. In general, these technologies fail. The most glaring flaw is that they are all open to being copied via a screenshot or even a photo of the screen. Don't send anything via a destructible email service that would be troublesome if it isn't destroyed.
