FileSnaps
End-to-end encrypted file sharing with automatic deletion, custom expiry rules and no account required to send or receive.
Rodney Dela Cruz
Technical Co-founder, eSerbisyo
- End-to-end encryption
- Expiring links
FileSnaps sends a file, and then the file stops existing. No account, no retention policy, no “this link has been viewed 14 times” — the content has a lifespan and then it is gone.
The premise is that most file sharing does not need to be permanent. A contract you are signing tonight, an ID you are sending to a specific person, a draft someone needs for an hour. Making the file expire by default removes a whole category of problem that only exists because the default was “keep it forever”.
Why expiry by default, not as a feature
The alternative — permanent by default, expiry as an option — puts the decision in front of every sender, most of whom will not read it. Files would be shared permanently by default anyway, and the feature would be decoration.
Defaulting to expiry means the safe behaviour is also the one you get by not thinking about it.
What “end-to-end” has to cover
Client-side encryption, with the key never reaching the server, which means the server genuinely cannot read what it is storing. The consequences are real and worth being honest about:
- Expiry has to be enforced by the server deleting the bytes, because the server cannot verify contents but can verify a timer.
- There is no content moderation and no search, by construction. If you need either, this is the wrong tool.
- Recovery is not a feature. A key that is gone is a file that is gone.
Zero accounts is a real constraint, not a simplification
No login removes the entire credential-handling surface — no password resets, no session management, no breach of an account database. The cost is that you cannot prove who sent something, and you cannot revoke access you never granted.
For the use case that actually motivates the tool, that trade is obviously correct. For anything requiring a chain of custody, it is disqualifying.
The honest limitation
Ephemeral does not mean private, and it does not mean anonymous. A recipient can save a copy. Anyone with the link has the link. Expiry limits how long a mistake stays a mistake; it does not prevent one.