All communication will bifurcate into two modes--attestable (on record) vs. deniable (off record). There will be a switch between "on record" and "off record" for every DM, webpage, and IRL conversation, and we will all be hyper aware of which mode our communication is in. → Attestable & on record: participants can reveal information about the communication in a provable & verifiable manner. → Deniable & off record: participants cannot reveal any information about the communication in a verifiable manner. A. Attested communication Currently, we mostly rely on screenshots for showing that certain communication happened--this is wildly insecure and can be faked. Technology to make "zkTLS" enabled all webpages to be attestable--once a session has been observed and timestamped by a third party, the user/client can always prove parts of the webpage hosted by the server. Beyond this, RFC9421 is a standard that turns any website into a verifiable and attested source of information. Beyond the digital world, attested microphones and cameras can record information with provenance from IRL events. This is especially important as AI deepfakes becomes indistinguishable from real recordings. It is clear that we need certain information to be attestable and technology is maturing across the board to support it. B. Deniable communication Deniability is the opposite property where a user is not able to disclose the exact transmitted information even if coerced. IRL conversations, if un-recorded, have this property--as there is no hard evidence to prove any information objectively. It turns out that such property is also possible in digital systems (under mild trust assumptions). One example is deniable encryption, which are possible in certain settings. Another example is deniable voting, which enables collusion resistance in voting: systems like MACI can provide deniable voting guarantees so that bribery is hard (briber would have to trust the voter's word on what they voted on). As generative AI and wearable computing proliferate, we will need better tech and products to empower end users to select between "on record" vs. "off record" for their communication. Which one will you choose as your default? (Illustration co-created with ChatGPT o3)