Border Patrol's Use of Amazon's Wickr Messaging App Draws Scrutiny (nbcnews.com) 19
A letter from the National Archives and Records Administration hints at growing unease with government officials' use of some encrypted messaging apps. NBC News: In October, Laurence Brewer, the chief records officer of the National Archives and Records Administration, told officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection he was worried about how the agency was using an app called Wickr. The Amazon-owned encrypted messaging platform is known for its ability to automatically delete messages. Brewer, who is responsible for ensuring that government officials handle records correctly, wrote in a letter that he was "concerned about agencywide deployment of a messaging application that has this functionality without appropriate policies and procedures governing its use." Brewer addressed his letter to Eric Hysen, the chief information officer of the Department of Homeland Security. It was uploaded to the National Archives website, and its concerns had not been previously reported. The document offers a rare insight into Customs and Border Protection's use of Wickr, and highlights the broader worries that some officials and watchdogs have about the growing use of messaging apps at all levels of the U.S. government.
Wickr was bought by Amazon's cloud-computing division last June and has contracts with a number of government agencies. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which has been criticized by human rights activists and immigration lawyers over what they say are its secretive practices, has spent more than $1.6 million on Wickr since 2020, according to public procurement records. But little is known about how the agency has deployed the app, which is popular among security-minded people ranging from journalists to criminals. Its auto-deletion feature has made the platform a cause of concern among government record keepers, as well as external watchdogs, who worry that Wickr and other similar apps are creating ways for customs officials to sidestep government transparency requirements.
Wickr was bought by Amazon's cloud-computing division last June and has contracts with a number of government agencies. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which has been criticized by human rights activists and immigration lawyers over what they say are its secretive practices, has spent more than $1.6 million on Wickr since 2020, according to public procurement records. But little is known about how the agency has deployed the app, which is popular among security-minded people ranging from journalists to criminals. Its auto-deletion feature has made the platform a cause of concern among government record keepers, as well as external watchdogs, who worry that Wickr and other similar apps are creating ways for customs officials to sidestep government transparency requirements.
I guess I'm the idiot (Score:5, Interesting)
He did it anyways after I left. I guess I'm the idiot for thinking that government would follow its own laws, and be honest and truthful while it endeavored to "serve" its citizens.
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I guess I'm the idiot for thinking that government would follow its own laws, and be honest and truthful while it endeavored to "serve" its citizens.
The power to make it do so is ours to lose. With sufficient demand, the government will do anything we want, without it, they will do as they please
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Ugh. Ridiculous that people think this flies.
I had a somewhat opposite situation. The company I worked for (A telco) was building a messaging app, and I got asked to put some pretty deep logging and message interception into it. I confronted the boss and said I was deeply uncomfortable with these features and felt they might be illegal.
Turns out that the bigger picture was most govt departments and also financial companies have heavy compliance rules about message archiving, so the whole plan was to build a
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Yep. Dick riders gonna ride. There's a whole posse of 'em in these parts, all loudly proclaiming how they ain't never rode a dick in their lives.
Confused (Score:2)
Why on earth would investigators want to delete messages sent to other govt workers?
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Blue wall of silence.
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When our niece crossed the border in 1999 near the Douglas, AZ, crossing they were told that if ten of them had $1000 each they could ride across in the back of a truck. The driver would pass an envelope to the CBP agents at the border and drive across uninspected. She didn't have that, so walked all day, all night, and all the next day through the desert.
Rump made the supervisor of the Douglas crossing head of the CBP, probably because of their long history of corruption.
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Ask hillary.
Governments can't delete messages? (Score:1)
Does that mean phone calls need to be recorded? And face-to-face conversations?
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No, but if information impacts or influences important decisions is discussed, it should either be followed up by an email summarizing the conversation, or a Memo For Record (MFR) should be created. Most government employees know this and document things this way. This documentation is important for audits, investigations, historians, and FOIA requests.
In other news (Score:2)
'Talking' is also frowned upon, since every talk gets forgotten immediately.
And don't even mention 'talking in riddles'.