IBM patent: very soon, when you hit ‘send’ and wish you hadn't, don't panic.

Many among us have already regretted to having sent clumsily a message, very soon IBM innovation will let you revise your email and recipients before it’s read .

Here is the patent description: ‘’A method of rescinding previously transmitted e-mail messages are provided. After a sender composes an e-mail message, the message may be stored on a computing system when it is sent to the recipients. As customary, the

e-mail message may contain a list of recipients to whom it is to be sent. A notification message is then generated and sent to the recipients (and to the sender) instead of the actual e-mail message. The notification message allows the recipients to automatically access the stored e-mail message. When and if the sender decides to rescind the message, the user may access the message and modify the list of recipients to exclude any number of recipients as well as to modify the text of the e-mail message. Any recipient whose e-mail address has been excluded will not be allowed to access the e-mail message’’.