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Now, The Washington Post<\/em><\/a> (which is owned by Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos) reports that Amazon is just one of several companies recently accused of turning to encrypted messaging apps like Signal that can permanently erase messages automatically. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week\u2019s filing includes screenshots of a Signal chat between two Amazon executives who said, \u201cAre you feeling encrypted?\u201d and proceeded to turn on disappearing messages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The FTC\u2019s lawyers say Bezos, current CEO Andy Jassy, general counsel David Zapolsky, former CEO of worldwide operations Dave Clark, and other execs are all Signal users. Bezos is identified in the document as \u201ca heavy Signal user\u201d who instructed others to use the app, although the 2018 hacking of his personal cellphone<\/a> may be part of the reason for that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And because Amazon didn\u2019t instruct employees to preserve messages sent in the app until more than 15 months after it was notified of the investigation, the FTC argues, \u201cIt is highly likely that relevant information has been\u00a0destroyed as a result of Amazon\u2019s actions and inactions.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The FTC lawyers are pursuing discovery into Amazon\u2019s efforts to preserve documents so they can figure out just how much information might be missing. Despite requests last fall for relevant documents about what advice Amazon gave to employees about ephemeral apps, the FTC claims that Amazon has so far refused to produce much of what was requested. If the judge finds that Amazon was negligent in failing to preserve data tied to the case, it could face sanctions, and things could get worse if the judge finds the failures were intentional<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n