Why Does Border Patrol Need the Ability To Delete Messages?

A lawsuit attempts to find out how federal agents are implementing Wickr, a communications service that has an auto-erase function.

The same government that wants to demand access to all our secure phone and online communications nevertheless wants to destroy its own to keep it out of the public’s hands? Say it isn’t so!

Yes, probably few are surprised, but it’s worth taking note whenever our own grabby government uses privacy technology to keep secrets. On Sunday, NBC News reported about Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) use of an Amazon-owned app called Wickr, a conferencing, file-sharing, and messaging service that can be customized to automatically delete messages.

The purchase and use of the app by CBP has prompted concerns by the National Archives and Records Administration that the agency could be using the app to delete messages or communications that are supposed to be stored under the Federal Records Act. The chief records officer of the National Archives sent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a letter last fall expressing his concerns and asking for documentation about policies for proper use. CBP hasn’t fully responded to his questions. Now the agency is being sued by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) because it hasn’t responded to Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation about how Wickr has been implemented. – READ MORE