Private Messaging Apps Increasingly Used For Public Business

IOWA CITY, Iowa — One app promotes itself as a way to discuss sensitive negotiations and human resources problems without leaving a digital record. Another boasts that disappearing messages “keep your message history tidy.” And a popular email service recently launched a “confidential mode” allowing the content of messages to disappear after a set time. The proliferation of digital tools that make text and email messages vanish may be welcome to Americans seeking to guard their privacy.