Missouri governor using confidential messaging app among staff

Gov. Eric Greitens and members of his senior staff use a confidential messaging app to communicate.

The app is called Confide and it sends messages designed to be read by the recipient and no one else. Messages on the app “self-destruct” after they are read, and cannot be captured by screenshot.

Although it is not clear what he is discussing on it, the governor’s use of the app has drawn concern from government transparency advocates.

David Roland, the director of ditigation for the Freedom Center of Missouri, says using Confide could close the door for whistleblower if any wrongdoing is committed.

As private citizens, Greitens and his staff are allowed to use the app, but as public officials the law gets more complicated.

“The law anticipates that if a document is going to be destroyed, a specific person will be destroying it,” Roland said. “What if you do if it’s an electric record that simply goes away?”

ABC 17 News asked Parker Briden, the Governor’s press secretary, if public business is discussed on the app Confide. At the time this article was published, no response was sent.