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from the are-we-for-encryption-or-against? dept.
Two Republican members of Congress sent a formal letter Tuesday to the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of the Inspector General, expressing concern that "approximately a dozen career EPA officials" are using the encrypted messaging app Signal to covertly plan strategy and may be running afoul of the Freedom of Information Act.
The open source app has gained renewed interest in the wake of the election of President Donald Trump.
As Ars has reported previously, all Signal messages and voice calls are end-to-end encrypted using the Signal Protocol, which has since been adopted by WhatsApp and other companies. However, unlike other messaging apps, Signal's maker, Open Whisper Systems, makes a point of not keeping any data, encrypted or otherwise, about its users. (WhatsApp also does not retain chat history but allows for backups using third-party services, like iCloud, which allows for message history to be restored when users set up a new device. Signal does not allow messages to be stored with a third party.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Spook brat on Friday February 17 2017, @03:54PM
On the Trumpian side you have all hobbiest shooters and gun owners, as well as essentially the entire military and all of the vets. Probably most of the police forces as well.
Don't be so quick to assume that those groups will be automatically and dogmatically aligned with the President. The Oathkeepers and 3%ers lean more Libertarian than strictly-speaking Republican. I'm pretty sure that both major parties in the US currently regard anyone who takes the "and domestic" part of their oath of office seriously as a potential traitor and not to be trusted.
Given that the Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes the Oathkeepers as an extremist group, [splcenter.org] and has the III%ers on their anti-government [splcenter.org] watch list, it's safe to say that few of those you listed will fall in with the Democrat party. Calls by the Oathkeepers' founder to have John McCain tried for treason aren't going to give them a good relationship with the Republican party, either. It's odd to think, but many Veterans are more likely to align with the Black Panthers than with either major party.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]