A cipher for sexts

You're not completely adverse to oversharing on social media about how much game you have, but some situations call for much tighter security. We understand completely. Too this end: the Kardashian Krypt, an application that hides messages in photos of Kim Kardashian. Just as the surveillance apparatus has been applied to matters of love, so too will tools created to thwart it. Here's how it works:

You grab the application at the Chrome Extension Store (it's also available on GitHub, but let's stick to Chrome to ensure greater ease of access for all participants), and open it. A tab will pop up, directing you to your very own Typex.

Write a message. You can lock it with a password or leave that field blank so the recipient doesn't need a password to decode the message. Hit ENKRYPT and voila -- out comes a picture of Kim Kardashian like millions of others online.

You are not one for the commonplace but when you think about it, there is nothing more stealth than being a basic bitch or basic bro in a very basic world.

Now you need a way to relay the communique. The Chrome extension renders images as PNGs, so you are going to need to make sure that whatever you use not only accepts the file but doesn't convert it. This means that Facebook is out. E-mail works -- as does Tumblr. (Actually, if you have time to properly plan this with your lover, not only can you come up with a password that no one might easily guess, you can also quickly create a Tumblr blog with posting access for both of you so that you can use it to relay these images to one another. No e-mails. No texts. And there is something so subversive about a Kim Kardashian fan site actually being a long and very lewd back-and-forth between lovers.)

Your lover will need to download the application as well, of course. But the Chrome extension makes it easy (and we're told a Firefox extension is coming soon as well). Once the have the file, they upload it, input the password if there is one, and hit DEKRYPT. There it is.

You can thank Maddy Varner, an intern at Free Art and Technology (FAT) Lab.

Image credit: Alex Wellerstein