# Secret-sharing words, explained

> Plain-language definitions of the terms you’ll meet around encrypted, self-destructing messages, from "burn after reading" to "zero-knowledge".

**AES-GCM**: A widely used encryption method that also detects if anyone tampered with the scrambled text. temp.cool uses it with 256-bit keys.

**Burn after reading**: A message that deletes itself as soon as it has been read.

**Ciphertext**: Scrambled text that can only be turned back into the message with the right key.

**End-to-end encryption**: Encryption where only the sender and recipient can read the message, not the service in between.

**Link preview**: The card a chat app shows for a link. Making it means opening the link, which is why temp.cool asks for a tap first.

**PBKDF2**: A way to turn a password into an encryption key slowly on purpose, so guessing passwords takes far longer.

**URL fragment**: The part of a link after the #. Browsers keep it to themselves and never send it to the server.

**Zero-knowledge**: A service built so that it cannot see the content it stores, even if it wanted to.