The Scottish Information Commissioner has been urged to investigate the use of messaging services such as WhatsApp by the Scottish government. The Liberal Democrats have raised concerns that ministers and advisers may be using such services to bypass Freedom of Information legislation. The Lib Dems have written to the Information Commissioner requesting an examination of the processes in place for ensuring messages communicated through WhatsApp and other channels, such as one-to-one text conversations on Microsoft Teams, which are only retained for seven days, are recorded and captured in Freedom of Information requests.
A spokesman for Mr Fitzhenry said: "While new technologies and ways of working can bring considerable efficiencies to the delivery of public services in Scotland, documentation of how decisions are informed is a vital aspect of public record keeping, including decisions recorded in messaging systems such as WhatsApp."
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