Useful SaaS Apps For Individuals and Businesses
April 1, 2019 — Although it is April 1st, we are actually not kidding when we say that we are offering you back your privacy when it comes to chatting online. While we did not fully build this script, and the source code is freely available on Github, we have modified some of the code to ensure that your privacy and security is in full effect. Never use a chat program again that does not promise the guarantee of complete privacy. We are introducing you to Ectochat.
Ecto means "external" or "on the outside" in Latin, and chat refers to communication, particularly online. Thus, the reason for naming our service Ectochat was to basically say that we are offering the services of an external chatroom, which is not internal and we do not keep any records of your communication amongst you or your team. After the tab is closed, there is no way to retrieve any of the log. While in many cases, most people want to return to a log, there are many others who want to keep their communication channels completely private. Along with the source code we have provided to you above, for which you can make your own decentralized chat using Javascript, we are stating that this project is completely open source and for you to freely download. Thus, there is nothing to "trust" from us. We are not here to steal your privacy, but rather provide a way for you to protect it. If you wish to save your chat, you will have to select all of the text, copy, and paste it somewhere. We do not provide any tools for this and have no interest in what you might be talking about. We created this project to help ourselves out and as a way to communicate in complete privacy with others.
Many online chats and communication channels between two people or multiple groups of people are logged by companies, often gathered for analytics or unless you have opted out of the logging service, your information may be held indefinitely. With Ectochat, your information is completely private, as Ectochat serves as a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) communication channels in which only the browsers are involved. There is no logging of data on any server and no database is involved, allowing for speed and security to be the top priority of Ectochat.
When it comes to deleting data off Facebook, Twitter, or even Google Hangouts, you may find articles telling you how to delete your data, but you will not find too much on how to delete data forever or individual conversations. When deleting a message off Facebook messenger, you will be given two options: the ability to Remove for Everyone. The recipient can still see that you removed a message and report it to Facebook, for which Facebook can still see that message. You also have the option to Remove for You which will remove it for you, but not for anyone else, including Facebook. With Google Hangouts, unless you decide not to record any messages ever in your history, you will be unable to ever delete certain messes unless you delete the entire conversation. Unfortunately, despite deleting it from your own history, Google still keeps a copy of it on their servers, so your messages are never actually truly deleted. When it comes to Twitter, there have been many cases of celebrities deleting accidental tweets that they never meant to tweet. Once it is published on the Internet, it is archived into multiple databases across the web, with companies who purposely record and archive every tweet. While the tweet may no longer appear in a Twitter feed or on a Twitter account, the message is somewhere. Only the original tweet is deleted, not the retweets, and not anything that a website may have snapshotted and saved on its own servers. Just take a look at all of these tweets from celebrities that no longer exist.
It is unfortunate, but you cannot delete mistakes anymore. You cannot delete what was said. You cannot truly delete what was written. Words have consequences and in many cases, particularly on social media, many people, particularly people in positions of power, have lost their jobs over a Tweet or a Facebook post. While it is certainly upsetting to see the inner-thoughts of people at times who carelessly send out messages and thoughts about what is on their mind, it is odd to think that this person is this way all the time. I could be mad at my boss one day and say that sometimes I just don't like working at my job because of the stress from my boss, and my company and my boss can now fire me? Social media is the best and most dangerous thing that could have happened to any of us, as a human race. Unfortunately, it goes both ways when it comes to seeing just how social media can be abused — first and foremost to allow for the First Amendment, which allows for Freedom of Speech, while at the same time, using it against us.
When it comes to Ectochat, no logs are ever saved. A refresh of the screen will reveal nothing from a previous conversation. If you wish to log your conversation, please use another chat. Ectochat uses the same technology as cryptocurrency in order to ensure the absolute privacy of the individuals communicating within the chat. Anyone can join a chat and the amount of people within the chat can be unlimited. All URLs of Ectochat will expire at the end of each day and will no longer be inaccessible. In other words, the URL of a newly created chat can be accessed up until midnight of the following day. After the chat expires, a new chat must be generated.
You may share the URL of the Ectochat with anyone. If you wish to generate a new chat without having a previously created chat, you can simply share the URL: https://ectochat.com/new
Anyone who enters the chat after anything has already been written will not be able to see it. Anyone who leaves the chat and returns will not be able to see previous text. As we have stated: this is a P2P chat in which only browsers are connecting to each other to allow for a communication channel. The browser itself has no capability of holding information for long periods of time, other than what cookies may be set or information may be logged. Ectochat is great for anyone trying to communicate without leaving any trace that there was ever a conversation. It is great for those who prefer to remain as anonymous as possible. Nothing is shared, nothing is logged, and we have set a flag to tell robots never to index, archive, or even follow the chat.
Another great feature that Ectochat offers is the ability for all users within the chat to remain anonymous. While two people talking could easily be identified, three or more persons would not be so identifiable. This feature would allow for an honest conversation in a meeting, so anyone within the chat could speak freely without worry. Having the ability to speak your mind is not something most of us do in the workplace, nor would we even dream about saying anything to our boss. However, if things are not right among the team, or if things could be properly said, maybe management understanding the team's anonymous answers could not only improve the workplace, but make it a more productive workplace as the team could be more honest about how things are really going on in the office.
Give Ectochat a try today and start incorporating it into your workflow for a safe and secure communication channel!