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Pluto Mail – Unsend Emails

sendpluto.com

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Re: Pluto Mail – Unsend Emails

#41
post #10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do images, with a link "click here to view as text" that redirects to sendpluto's web viewer.

If that's true, then it's misleading to call it e-mail. All the recipient gets is a link to an offsite database.

Hi lutusp,

The content displays automatically in the email client. The link is only relevant if you want to copy/paste/make in-line comments. Thanks for your comment.

Lindsay Co-Founder @ Pluto Mail

Re: Pluto Mail – Unsend Emails

#42
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No iframes in email. I bet it's rendered as an image. Either way, you're trusting them with the contents of a message that, by definition, you kinda wanted to keep private.

I guess so, but that's the same situation as it is with any other email provider (yahoo, gmail, etc). The difference here is that you are only trusting Pluto. With other providers, you are trusting the provider and all recipients, whether they are an intended recipient or not. In short, there is no free lunch, but this seems like a decent solution as you only have to trust one entity. Its up to us (potential users) t…

Indeed there is no free lunch and until email end-to-end encryption is widely supported, the unencrypted content is going to be stored somewhere. Pluto has an easily accessible eliminate option that deletes all copies of the email from our servers (and given the way Pluto works, also the recipient's access to the content). You can click “Eliminate all emails” on the top right signed-in home page to eliminate all emails or you can do it on a per-email basis by clicking “Eliminate Completely” in the top left of an email details page. We also support an auto-eliminate setting that eliminates an email from our servers upon unsend or auto-expire.

David Gobaud, Co-Founder @ Pluto Mail

Re: Pluto Mail – Unsend Emails

#43

Interesting approach, but the image approach means if they go down, your email all disappears.

also, you can't search, copy&paste, reply inline. That's not email, it's like sending someone a fax.

Pluto allows you to select, copy, and paste from the text version accessible via the link, though it does have search limitations. For our active users, the inconvenience is an acceptable tradeoff for being able to limit their email footprint. Search is also much less important if the email will soon be expired.

However, we are working on email client plugins that will enable inline reply/copy/paste and search to improve the Pluto experience.

David Gobaud, Co-Founder @ Pluto Mail

Re: Pluto Mail – Unsend Emails

#44
There are a number of fundamental issues with this service.

1. As a recipient my privacy is violated: a signal is sent automatically to the sender without my consent to signal when I open the message. A co-founder argues "the feature exists with other systems already": the difference is, these other systems are opt-in: as a recipient, I agree explicitly to read acknowledgements when I choose to download the alternative messaging client. As an e-mail recipient, I do not agree to this "service" and it is unethical to force it upon me.

2. The "expire" feature breaks the workflow of most e-mail users I know, including myself. Most users will first open an e-mail, quickly scan it, then mark it for later in-depth processing. If the expire timer starts at the first open, chances are the e-mail will have disappeared by the time the recipient re-opens it later.

3. The service breaks search: with Pluto mail stored at Pluto's servers, it is not possible to search across both Pluto and non-Pluto e-mails in one query.

4. The strategy to "provide e-mail client plugins" is not scalable obviously, due to the wide diversity of clients actually used. (Did the founders make a market study of which clients are actually used? On mobile, my own analysis shows there are at least 6 different apps in wide use. On desktop, at least 4. The development overhead of providing plugins to all is huge.)

Re: Pluto Mail – Unsend Emails

#45
post #44

There are a number of fundamental issues with this service. 1. As a recipient my privacy is violated: a signal is sent automatically to the sender without my consent to signal when I open the message. A co-founder argues "the feature exists with other systems already": the difference is, these other systems are opt-in: as a recipient, I agree explicitly to read acknowledgements when I choose to download the alternati…

Thanks for your comments.

1. Most email open tracking services do not alert the recipient (or require opt-in). Tracking email opens is basically standard practice these days. We don’t have numbers but I bet the majority of marketing emails track opens. Also, many new services such as Streak, Yesware, and ToutApp track opens without opt-out ability or downloads. The only similar service that we know of that has a time-limited opt-out option is Boomerang.

2/3. Pluto’s goal is to change the way people think about email. If an email is going to expire in a few minutes/hours does search matter? Pluto may not make sense for your business emails and that is ok. We are providing an option for people to use for emails that they don’t want to follow them for the rest of their life.

4. It is a big task and we’re working on ways to make Pluto as accessible and easy to use as possible.

David Gobaud Co-Founder @ Pluto Mail

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