Vanish (computer science)

Vanish is a project at the University of Washington which endeavors to "give users control over the lifetime of personal data stored on the web." The project proposes to allow a user to enter information that he or she will send out across the internet, thereby relinquishing control of it. However, the user is able to include an "expiration date," after which the information is no longer usable by anyone who may have a copy of it, even the creator. The Vanish approach was found to be vulnerable to a Sybil attack, and thus insecure, by a team called Unvanish from the University of Texas, University of Michigan, and Princeton.