Leak is a new Web tool you can use to send anonymous emails to anyone you want. Just type in the recipient’s email address and your message before clicking “Send” and Leak will forward the info for you. The perfect tool for sharing secrets, right? Not quite.
The email you send will arrive at its destination with no identifying information that could possibly point back to you. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this is the Internet, and as Leak notes in its FAQ, “Nothing on the Internet is really anonymous.”
As the name suggests, it’s a great tool for leaking critical information you feel should be public knowledge, and that’s because there’s nothing keeping Leak from actually sharing your email with anyone and everyone. Leak will send the message to your intended target, but it might also tweet out the email or include in it a weekly roundup of the “best” Leak messages.
If you have a secret you absolutely need to tell a specific someone, but can’t have a paper trail leading back to your inbox, you probably shouldn’t trust Leak. Twitter users or other random Leak visitors might end up reading your message before the intended recipient even gets around to checking their email. Leak may be a great tool for making secrets public, but the result may be more scattershot than you had in mind.
It’s somewhat humorous that Leak decided to use a looping GIF of the ruthless Frank Underwood as its website’s impromptu mascot, as the politician is a master of secure, untraceable person-to-person communication, while Leak is anything but.
Photo via Turneround/Flickr (CC 2.0)
