Not Fade Away

A number of apps, now including whatsapp, offer disappearing messages. These messages permanently delete, for both the sender and receipient, within 7 days. Other apps, like signal, have been doing this for years. In every case, it's as if the messages had never existed. These disappearing messaging apps appear problematic for political business (https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/mar/29/legal-challenge-seeks-stop-ministers-sending-disappearing-messages-whatsapp). The campaigning law group, Foxglove, is making a legal challenge to stop politicians using disappearing messaging apps. As they say, "Privacy is for the citizen. Transparency is for government". Foxglove think the current system is 'democracy backwards'. As they say, government knows lots about its citizens but the citizens know less and less about them. One can understand, why disappearing messages are attractive to politicians. They will often feel the need to bury a stupid comment or something said 'privately' to their own group. Indeed, there are many ocassions, when emails sent 10 years previously, have come back to haunt aspiring politicians. Sometimes the emails were sent, when they were private citizens. I agree, however, that it is important that politicians be held to account. There has to be a record. Politians are slippy enough, without having this 'Get Out of Jail Free' card. It might prove more difficult, however, to specify the circumstances, when politicians and officials have to use messaging with a permanent record.