Instant messaging, or "IM's", by associated persons has been a constant compliance headache for broker-dealers of all shapes and sizes.  Imagine, if you will, how difficult it might be to control these transmissions if IM texts vanished from both the sender and receiver's phones.  Well, imagine no more.

The Wall Street Journal today reported that a new messaging service - TigerText Inc. - enables the sender and receiver to delete the texts after a selected period of time - so they cannot be copied or forwarded, or perhaps even monitored. This service, which was started in February 2010 by 4 Los Angeles businessmen, has been downloaded by about half a million people.  TigerText offers its enterprise version at a cost of $10 per employee each month.  To use it, both the sender and receiver must have the app, which is available free for iPhones, Android and BlackBerry devices, among a variety of others. 

It's just a matter of time before the Santa Monica, CA, company offers users the opportunity to send self-deleting videos and documents through the mobile app, as well.  TigerText says it has no ability to retrieve messages once they've expired and have been cleared off its server.  However, the company says it would comply with any requests from law enforcement and cooperate with any investigations.

    A Growing Service.  According to the WSJournal, TigerText is the latest in a long line of businesses chasing the market for untraceable communication.  Others who offer the service include, the following:

• Research in Motion (or RIM), which allows BlackBerry Messenger users to send private messages among themselves, has attracted a large following. 
• Kik Interactive Inc. started a similar service, Kik Messenger, last year.  
• BigString Corp. introduced a self-deleting texting application to BlackBerry users about 3 years ago, but it later abandoned the idea to focus on a mobile email service that allows users to recall, delete, and edit emails after they are sent and doesn't require both sender and receiver to adopt the service, just the sender.  It now has about one million active users.

TigerText President Brad Brooks says, "People think they don't need it but the second they get it, they can't imagine life without it."  He further notes that the service's ability to delete messages after a certain time and availability across mobile phones also distinguishes it from others.  Users can select a message to expire after a period from one minute to 30 days.  Once the message has expired, it is deleted from the phone and written over on TigerText's servers, so it can't be retrieved.  Users can also select an option that deletes a text within 60 seconds of a recipient opening it.

    Enterprise Service.   With the enterprise service, users gain the ability to automatically load all employees on the application without having to enter their individual cellphone numbers.  TigerText estimates it will have 50 to 100 corporate clients by year's end. So far, the service appears to have drawn significant interest among health care and entertainment professionals. 

And then there's financial services.  Oh, boy!   For further details, refer to:   [WSJ, 2/4, "Secret Texting... Pass it On"]