This is a list of the most frequently asked questions and their answers.  You can also find more information on our Message Board, Development and Product Info pages.

How do I get started? First, download/install the briefile program, then open the briefile program type a message that you want protected and save. At this point you can share the briefile (that you just saved) with whomever you want and feel confident that your information is protected. In order for your recipient to open the briefile, they also need to download/install the briefile program. When sharing a briefile with someone who has not received a briefile before, add a note like this: Example: Hey Jim, because this information is confidential I put it in a briefile - which is a self expiring file that only lets you look at the information for a limited period of time and doesn't let you copy/paste or print it. To open the briefile, you need to download/install the briefile program from http://www.briefile.com/pp/downloads/Downloads.aspx.  Can I try the product before I buy it? Yes. The Briefile program is free, download at your convenience Downloads. The Briefile program will let you create 10 Briefiles before prompting you to open an account.  What are some examples that Briefile is being used for? Briefile is an excellent solution whenever you need to guarantee your electronic communication is protected from getting shared with someone else - and without having to trust the people that you are sharing the information with. (Other solutions expect you to trust the people that you are sharing with, but research shows that most data leaks come from inside) Examples: - Legal documents - Market research & analysis - Corporate communications - Financial & Accounting documents - Customer records - Government documents - Design & Engineering documents  How should I send someone a briefile that has never received one before? It works just like Adobe pdf files. Anyone who wants to open a breifile needs to download/install the briefile program. Just as anyone who wants to open a pdf file has to download/install Adobe Reader. When you e-mail someone a brieifile, just include the link to the briefile program download page and tell them they need to download/install before opening the file. Example: Hey Jim, because I can't let you keep this information, I put it in a briefile - which is a self expiring file that only lets you look at the information for a limited period of time. To open the briefile, you need to download/install the briefile program from http://www.briefile.com/pp/downloads/Downloads.aspx.  Do I need an Internet connection? Yes. The Briefile service communicates with a server located on the Internet and will not work without an Internet connection. If you try to open a briefile off-line (without an Internet connection), you will get a network connection error. The Briefile program is a Internet enabled application. It only works with access to the Internet.  Can Briefile block forwarding? Yes. Although we cannot actually stop anyone from forwarding your briefile, but we can block who has access to open it - and therefore blocking your data from getting forwarded. Briefile currently has two methods of blocking your briefile from getting forwarded to someone other then the intended recipient. 1. When creating your briefile, set the duration to ‘Read Once’. This is great for communicating with a single person because the briefile will expire as soon as the person opened it. So, forwarding the briefile will be useless. 2. When creating your briefile, check the ‘Limit access to account users’ checkbox. This is great for communicating with several people (for example, sending a report to your employees), because only your briefile account users will be able to open the briefile. Therefore, if someone forwards your briefile to someone outside your business (someone who is not a user on your briefile account) it will be useless, because they will not be able to open it. To add/remove users on your briefile account, go to the 'Add Users' page under the 'My account' menu on this website. This feature does not work unless you have opened a briefile account, because without a briefile account, we have no way to limit access to your account users. To open a briefile account, go to the 'My account' meun on this website.  Can I include large e-mail attachments? Yes. The Briefile service allows briefiles as large as 5 MB compressed - which could be as much as a 1000 pages of text or several large images. If you exceed this limit, you are simply prompted to reduce the size of your briefile.  Can I use any email program or just Outlook? Yes, you can use any email program. The Briefile service is not limited to Outlook users. But, the Briefile program is a Windows application, so you do need to be running Windows or a Windows imulator.  Does the Briefile service store the data? Yes. The actual data is encrypted and stored behind the Briefile protected server. Then, when the briefile expires, it is deleted. The actual briefile (that you e-mail to someone) only contains a unique id that is used to retrieve the data.  Can someone read a briefile without downloading the Briefile program? No. Other e-messaging solutions that allow users to open a message without a downloadable program (like forwarding to a website) are compromising your message, because anyone could simply copy/paste or printscreen/paste your message into another e-mail and forward to anyone else. We are not willing to compromise our customer’s confidential information for this one-time inconvenience.  Why do you use a program rather then a webpage? We use a client program for the following reasons: 1. Information on a webpage cannot be protected from copy-pasting, printing or forwarding. 2. Webpages are difficult to add powerful features to the product. 3. Webpages force users to remember passwords to login every time they want to use the program. 4. Webpages decrease performance, because the work is done on the web server rather then on each users computer. The major disadvantage of client programs in that they have to be installed and updated by the end user, but the install is only one time and the updates can be overcome with automatic updates.  Do I need a Paypal account? No. When you click the 'Paypal buy now' button on the 'purchase briefiles' page, you can purchase briefiles with either your Paypal account (if you have one) or a credit card. Paypal with accept either.  If I were to buy 100 briefiles, how can I send them from different computers with different IP address? For each computer that you install the Briefile program on, you add the programs clientID to your account. The clientID is unique to each install and you can find it on the 'Help->About Briefile' menu. A business may have as many installs as they want, all billing to one account. Each Briefile program added to your account will bill to that account. The 'test-drive' (first 10 briefiles are free) is based on your IP address is completely different and only meant to be a try-before-you-buy experience.  If the initial install allows you to create 10 briefiles before paying for the service, couldn't someone just continue re-installing? The initial isntall will only allows the creation of 10 briefiles from a single IP address. So once you have created 10, you can't just re-install. The only way to continue creating briefiles is to open an account and pay for the service. Multiple users on the same machine will not each get to create 10 briefiles. All of them together get 10 briefiles total.  Why can't I set the duration of a Briefile for longer then 3-month? The primary idea behind Briefile is to create a 'file' that exists for a 'brief' period of time - limiting your liability of managing the private data for any longer then you need to. If you want to create a file that exists for longer then 3-months, then why not just create a regular file. If you want a file to exist for longer then 3-months, but also want to control it's duration, then you may want to re-create a Briefile every 3-months.