Burn After Reading
Burn-after-reading links that vanish on first view.
A burn-after-reading link gives the recipient one chance to see the contents — after that, the data is gone. LinkPilot enforces the burn atomically, so concurrent views cannot leak the secret twice, and writes every event to a tamper-evident timeline.
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Secret Links are not marketing links.
Secret contents are handled separately from short-link analytics. LinkPilot may show basic delivery/audit events, but secret contents are never used for campaign analytics, profiling, or retargeting.
Secret Links vs Smart Links
Two different jobs, kept intentionally separate. Use the right tool for the right share.
| Secret Links | Smart Links | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Sending sensitive info you want to control after sending | Branded short links for campaigns and content |
| Expiration | Required — minutes to 30 days, or on first view | Optional — set an expiry if you want one |
| One-time viewing | Yes — burn after read enforced atomically | No — designed to be clicked many times |
| Passphrase protection | Optional, hashed client-side before transport | Not applicable |
| Analytics | None on contents — only basic delivery/audit events | Full click analytics: referrers, geo, device, UTM |
| Audit events | Created, viewed, burned, revoked — per secret | Aggregated click stream and link lifecycle |
| Best for | Passwords, API keys, credentials, confidential notes | Marketing, social, email, QR codes, partner links |
Common use cases
- Sharing a password reset that should not be reused
- Sending an MFA seed to a colleague
- Releasing a confidential URL or document path
- Delivering customer-specific access credentials
What you get
Atomic burn
Row-level locking guarantees the secret is consumed exactly once.
Passphrase gate
Optional passphrase to prevent unintended viewers from triggering the burn.
Status visibility
See whether a secret is still active, has been viewed, or was revoked.
Audit log
Full lifecycle events for compliance and incident response.
Why teams choose LinkPilot
One platform for every kind of link
Most tools cover either marketing links or secret sharing. LinkPilot covers both — with the controls, audit trail, and team workflows engineering and marketing teams actually need.
| Capability | Secret Links | Smart Links | Controlled Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time Secret Links | |||
| Expiring links | |||
| Passphrase protection | Partial | ||
| Branded short links | |||
| Link analytics | |||
| Audit events | |||
| Team workflows | |||
| API access | |||
| Revocation | |||
| Custom expiration |
How is this actually secured?
No vague "military-grade encryption" claims — here is the real model. Traffic is TLS-encrypted in transit and stored data is encrypted at rest on managed infrastructure. Passphrases are SHA-256 hashed in your browser before transport, so the raw passphrase never reaches our database or logs.
Burn-after-read is enforced atomically with row-level locking, so two concurrent viewers can never both read a secret. Burned, expired, or revoked payloads are irreversibly redacted. Viewer IPs are SHA-256 hashed with a salt that rotates every 24 hours — raw IPs are never stored — and link unfurlers (Slack, email scanners) receive metadata only: a view is recorded solely on an explicit reveal.
Frequently asked questions
What does the recipient see after the burn?
A clear message that the secret has already been viewed and is no longer available, with a hint to request a new one.
Can I send the same secret twice?
Not the same link — create a new burn-after-reading link each time. This keeps each share independently auditable.
Does opening a link preview count as a view?
No. We only count an explicit reveal action, not link unfurling by chat or email clients.