With the rise of ephemeral messaging, self-erasing communications have gone from spy movie lore to everyday consumer technology (minus, of course, the tiny denotations). But while embraced by privacy advocates, such technology isn’t always readily welcomed from those tasked with compliance efforts and investigations.

Time-limited messaging, after all, can stifle the best laid e-discovery plans or the most thoroughly conducted investigation. And they’re not going away anytime soon. Once only the focus of a handful of messaging apps, ephemeral messages are now being offered by widely used services like Gmail and Facebook.