Secretbook is a Google Chrome extension created by twenty-one year old Oxford Univesity student Owen-Campbell Moore as a way to send messages without that pesky ongoing survieilience that Facebook has become so widely known for. The messages, hidden in JPEG images, may only be accessed via a user created password shared between the creator and the recipient. Moore links the inspiration for the extension to his ongoing interest in digital steganography — the practice of concealing messages inside computer files. This practice isn’t new but this is the first time it has been automated as well as part of Facebook.
The instuctions for using the service are quite simple–share a password with the person you’d like to communicate with, then upload an image to Facebook using Secretbook’s dialogue box and post it to your friend’s wall. The recepient will then be able to use the password you’ve shared to decode the message.
