Open Gov't Advocates Fear that Private Messaging Apps Are Being Misused by Public Officials To Conduct Business in Secret (pbs.org)

The proliferation of digital tools that make text and email messages vanish may be welcome to Americans seeking to guard their privacy. But open government advocates fear they are being misused by public officials to conduct business in secret and evade transparency laws. From a report: Whether communications on those platforms should be part of the public record is a growing but unsettled debate in states across the country. Updates to transparency laws lag behind rapid technological advances, and the public and private personas of state officials overlap on private smartphones and social media accounts. "Those kind of technologies literally undermine, through the technology itself, state open government laws and policies," said Daniel Bevarly, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. "And they come on top of the misuse of other technologies, like people using their own private email and cellphones to conduct business." Some government officials have argued that public employees should be free to communicate on private, non-governmental cellphones and social media platforms without triggering open records requirements.

Comments

You can’t have it both ways

[Anonymous Coward]

People don’t want the government spying on them but cry foul when the government uses the same tools.

I keep saying this

[rsilvergun]

But given how openly corrupt the current admin is does it really matter? I mean, the head of the EPA was ousted for petty things like buying furniture with government funds, meanwhile the EPA is ignoring large scale pollution while working to roll back the endangered species act so that rich guys can go hunting (seriously, look it up). We've got a president who refuses to release tax returns and at least 20% of the population (and 42% of the voting pop) is perfectly OK with that as though they'd forgotten why we make presidential candidates with obvious conflicts of interest release those.

I just saying that knowing the particulars of corruption is pointless when you can see the effects of it right out in the open. If you want to see this crap stop start showing up to your primaries and demanding politicians who refuse corporate PAC money. Guys like these. Why anyone would vote for someone who openly accepts PAC money is beyond me.