German researchers have created a new software technology giving content creators the chance to encrypt images with an expiration date. The X-Pire software is expected for release later this month, with a 2 euro monthly charge for Internet users that want to be able to configure images to auto purge.
Each person uploading an image using X-Pire must provide an expiration date and anyone that wants to view X-Pire encrypted images must download a mandatory browser add-on. The add-on is currently available to Mozilla Firefox users and other browser versions are now in development.
If a user decides to stop paying 2 euros for the subscription, their new X-Pire made images will not include expiration dates. The developers have successfully uploaded these tagged images to Facebook and Flickr with great success, while testing will continue through other online Web portals.
After 18 months of development, X-Pire aims to help users prevent some images from being permanently archived once published online. Specifically, this new picture DRM could be especially helpful for Facebook and social media users that post pictures online but want the chance to have them removed later.
Once an image has been uploaded to a social network, it is reportedly saved and catalogued -- even if the images are no longer able to be edited or changed after upload. The European Union and other governments are looking for ways to try and better protect Internet users, though invasion of privacy issues remain on the forefront.
This seems like a noble effort to include a way for images to automatically be removed from the web -- but the target demographic for this software likely won't care. They will continue to post images on Facebook, Flickr, and on the Internet with little regard as to what happens to those images next.
