In the large amount of information carried by e-mail, sometimes the users may want to keep some of the exchanges by e-mail 'off the record'. The present e-mails sent leave behind their trail which is very much difficult to erase. One or more of the email servers maybe having the backup copy of the e-mail even if it has been deleted by both the sender and the receiver. Encryption can be seen as a solution to this problem, but the encrypted messages can be recovered if the decryption key is revealed. Thus to ensure email privacy, an off-the-record email system is proposed in this article. the email stays in the sender’s computer and it is read by the recipient using his browser over a secure network connection. even with the help of both parties’ private keys, the content of the message cannot be recovered. The e-mail has a limited lifetime and hence cannot be recovered from the backup copies once it has been deleted from the sender's system. The system is compatible with the existing e-mail systems. The deployment of the system for internet as well as intranet is also discussed.

get the report here:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/dow...1&type=pdf