Secure Chat (or secure Instant messaging (IM)) is a technology that facilitates encrypted, near real-time text based communication between two or more participants over a secure network. Secure IM came about in response to the demand for business-grade IM and the need to ensure security and legal compliance. Now one can limit chat to only family and friends, thus securing against unwanted intruders, or only within a corporation, thus limiting employees from using free chat based applications such as MSN, Google, or Yahoo! and thereby limiting instant messaging to work functions.