Read-only document sharing is a simple thing in the physical world. Pull a document out of the briefcase that's handcuffed to your wrist, show it to your covert contact, and put it back in the briefcase. Unless your contact has a concealed spy camera, there's no trace remaining. The free Dstrux service aims to bring the same level of protection to online file sharing. It does the job, though it's a work in progress.
At present, the wholly Web-based Dstrux service is free, and it will be free until at least the end of 2014. The company's plans after that point will be guided to some extent by how people use the service. While it's not technically in beta, I felt a bit like a beta tester during my evaluation. I found a number of user interface bugs and a couple of more significant problems; all were quickly fixed.
Note that Dstrux is optimized specifically for Windows 8 and for the latest Mac OS. I tried it under Windows XP and found it worked reasonably well with Firefox, but not at all with Internet Explorer. Under Windows 7 and even Vista, I couldn't see any difference from running it under Windows 8. Still, Windows 8 is recommended.
Getting Started
To start using Dstrux, just navigate to the website and drop a file on the sharing circle. Dstrux encrypts the file locally and transmits it securely to the company's servers. Next, you set the number of days, hours, and minutes before the file self-destructs. The interface here is faintly awkward; you click radio buttons to select the unit and click up/down arrows to set the number of days, hours, or minutes. The maximum time to expiration is 30 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes. Because every file expires, Dstrux's creators have opted not to set a limit on file size or total storage used.
You can share links to your files via Facebook or email. Just enter your email address and the recipients' addresses, add your message, and share. Or connect with Facebook, select from your list of friends, and share using a Facebook message. Note that all this happens without you even having to sign up for the service!
After you've shared a file, clicking the Control What You Shared button invites you to define a password and thereby create your Dstrux account. The process is very smooth and simple. Once you've created your account, you manage it through an online console. There's nothing to install on the local PC.
Dstrux Console
Each file you've shared appears in your online console as a rectangular card that shows the filename, the time until the share expires, and the number people this file has been shared with. Along the bottom of the card are buttons that let you change the expiration time, add sharing recipients, and control whether recipients can forward the share. There's also a trash can icon to get rid of unwanted files.
The center of the card contains a thumbnail for image files; for other documents it shows stylized lines of text. Clicking in the center lets you view all the recipients with whom you've shared the item. There's a link icon next to each; clicking the link revokes that recipient's access. Note that you can go back and restore the connection later on, if you wish.
A pull-down list of notifications lets you know if you've received new shares from other users. It also reports on whether recipients of your shares have viewed or forwarded them. And that's about it—Dstrux is really quite simple.
Dstrux supports many popular image and document file types, and promises that video and audio types are "coming soon." If you try to share an unsupported file type, the service will let you know that it's not possible. I was mildly surprised to find TXT among the unsupported types.
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