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Information is powerful stuff...especially info that's
put online. It's a little crazy when some high schooler
puts really nasty stuff on Facebook for the world to
see. There are some times when you want a little
privacy and online texting is no different. Bring in
the The Zipper. A really sweet function of the Zipper
app for both Iphone and Droid smart phones is the
ability to have private texting and message boards
available on the go. Let's take a look at how it works
and why it's different than just regular texting.
It's
pretty simple. From the Channel's drop down, you can
quickly create a private channel. This channel is
password (alpha-numeric to make it easy) protected. You
simply give out the passcode to anyone you want to have
access to the text and message board. The ZIpper app is
free so they just need to download it, enter the
passcode under the Channel drop down and voila, you (how
ever many people you want to give the passcode to) have
access to that messaging board and texting. You can
have multiple channels and narrowcast as much as you
want. One private channel can be for a best friend, one
for a boy friend, one for a group of friends. The High
School or College channel essentially works like a
private channel but for a school. So why do this
instead of just using the normal text function of a cell
phone.
Quick question. Let's say you have information or a
running message that you don't want anyone to find. It
could be gossip. It could be about an ex and an
ex-friend (so typical). Texting on a phone is easy
although it's not cheap but it's also the first place
anyone goes to look to see what you've been up to. This
may be your parents (trust us...they're checking on your
Facebook and texting). It might be that ex snooping
around when you're upstairs. It might be someone at a
party who's nosey and decides to check out your phone
only to find embarrassing stuff in your text. Sure you
can password texting but how many do. Also, we're in
and out of the phones all day long so it's not that
tough to see our phone text messages getting intercepted
by parents, siblings, rivals, frenemies. The Zipper is
protection from that. First, no one's going to think
to look there for secret texts and messages. Secondly,
you can't actually see a history of the text or the
channel itself. It's all driven by entering in a
passcode. It's not like you see a channel called
"secret messages about my big crush". You just see a
cursor waiting for a passcode to be entered. There's no
incriminating evidence, your honor. When you want to
access the message, you simply enter the alpha-numeric
passcode and the board pops up. The Zipper keeps track
of which channels are tied to your phone on a local
basis. You can also delete a channel if you created it
for further protection.
Look, we know there's good and bad to this level of
privacy online but we also have to trust that people
have situations where they need their privacy and can
act both responsibly and legally. If people want to
show very incriminating behavior on their Facebook page,
that's there problem. For the rest of us, the Zipper
app gives us a free way to protect our conversations and
messages with private texting boards. You can also use
these for a simple way to communicate with groups of
people as well. So go ahead and Zip It! Privately. |
