Judge should order governor to stop using ephemeral messaging app, lawyers say

Source: Ars Technica

Two Missouri lawyers have sued the governor’s office over its use of Confide, an ephemeral messaging mobile app, which they say is in violation of state public records law.

The two men are set to appear before a county judge on Friday to ask for a temporary restraining order that would bar current and future use of such apps by the governor and his staff. Lawyers representing Governor Eric Greitens say that such a move is unwarranted.

Confide, like Signal and other popular encrypted-messaging apps, auto-deletes messages after a certain period of time, making automated record-keeping of those messages very difficult, if not impossible. Use of such apps by public employees for official business is almost certain to run afoul of transparency laws.

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"You can't have civil liberties if you don't know what the government is doing with regard to the Fourth Amendment," Mark Pedroli, the lawyer representing Sansone, told Ars. "There [are] people who are Second Amendment people who think the government maintains a gun owner list and various things. Getting access to those documents alleviates suspicion and paranoia and tells you the truth. It's wildly important that government officials not communicate through ephemeral communication devices. We need a paper trail. That's what we want."

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Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/lawyers-governors-secret-messaging-app-use-violates-public-records-laws/