DOJ Crackdown Prompts Compliance Scramble on WhatsApp, Signal

Corporate compliance chiefs and general counsel are bombarding outside attorneys with questions about how to design a policy to retain employee messaging on encrypted software, white-collar lawyers say.The intensifying dilemma for companies is fueled by recently stepped up Justice Department pressure in white collar investigations to produce encrypted chats on apps like Signal and WhatsApp. The enforcement push follows a wave of civil settlements on Wall Street over bankers’ inaccessible messages.“To the extent this was a hot topic, it’s going to be even hotter,” said Brian R. Michael, a Los Angeles-based partner in Morrison Foerster’s investigations and white collar defense practice.Clear solutions remain elusive. A DOJ policy announced March 3 directed prosecutors to levy steeper penalties against firms under investigation that are unable to preserve workers’ business-related messages. Companies are struggling to determine if the benefits of obtaining such information, which is often buried in unmonitored devices or gets deleted by disappearing software, are worth the delicate, expensive effort. ‘Brick Walls’Michael, formerly chief compliance officer for 21st Century Fox, said people in his prior role were already getting C-suite resistance about what’s feasible before the DOJ formalized its policy. But in-house lawyers and compliance officers now have a “compelling data
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