Arecent Politico report revealed a number of government employees working under the radar to find their bearings as the ship changes course under the new administration.

The report cites a letter currently circulating through private e-mails and Google Docs among Labor Department employees with “serious concerns’’ about the secretary of labor nominee, asking senators to oppose his nomination. It also cites unnamed employees at the Environmental Protection Agency reportedly using encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal, and opting for old-fashioned in-person meetings to organize and strategize.

“I have no idea where this is going to go,’’ the anonymous source told Politico. “I think we’re all just taking it one day at a time and respond in a way that seems appropriate and right.’’

“Appropriate’’ and “right’’ are terms that may need some decryption when it comes to encryption and official government business.

The nature of end-to-end encryption means that digital messages don’t reside on external servers. Instead, they’re decrypted through use of a unique key on a user’s device.

Government employees (and others) using those apps could thereby operate with an assurance of privacy and an absence of records.

Keep in mind that The Federal Records Act requires government employees to keep all records, which includes “all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine-readable materials, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics.’’ But encrypted chat apps like WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal — which the Clinton campaign turned to following the hacking of DNC e-mails — would yield only gibberish under hack or subpoena, and would allow users to circumvent FOIA, or Freedom of Information Act, requests. This doesn’t sit well with everyone.

Then-candidate Trump showed early signs of irritation at the notion of encryption during the primaries, when Apple refused to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernadino shooter. He’s since issued vague calls for “closing that Internet up in some ways’’ and “tak[ing] back the Internet.’’

“Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech,’’’ he remarked at a 2015 rally. “These are foolish people.’’

For his part, President Obama was no cheerleader for encryption, either. At the 2015 South by Southwest Interactive conference, he cautioned encryption advocates against taking an “absolutist perspective’’ on the technology, expressing concerns that crime — from tax fraud to terrorism — could proceed unchecked if “everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket.’’

Last March, the New York Times reported that Obama’s Justice Department was “privately debating’’ how to approach an ongoing standoff with WhatsApp, in which an approved wiretap from a federal judge was “stymied by WhatsApp’s encryption.’’

As security concerns ramp up around the globe, expect encryption to be a major issue for the Trump administration, especially as leaks keep springing from the walls of White House. (On that note, Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, recently told CNBC that demand for SecureDrop, the foundation’s own encrypted “open-source whistleblower submission system’’ for media organizations, has “absolutely exploded.’’)

Trump’s recently confirmed attorney general pick Jeff Sessions has already gone on record saying it’s “critical . . . that national security and criminal investigators be able to overcome encryption.’’ And FBI director James Comey has remarked that 2017 is the year he intends to have an “adult conversation’’ about encryption — which certainly suggests his posture toward hard-line privacy advocates.

Meanwhile, the number of users signing up for encrypted services is growing rapidly. According to a Verge report, “on November 9th Signal vaulted up App Annie’s ranking of the most popular iOS social networking apps, from 98th place to 45th.’’ The app’s profile has also been raised by mentions from documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

This time last year, WhatsApp, which runs off the same encryption protocol as Signal, had already claimed 1 billion users. Other encrypted chat apps like Line, Telegram, and WeChat are also picking up steam. Further, secure browsers and platforms like Tor — which send communications across a distributed network of relays to prevent interception — are also gaining users. Such growth all but guarantees an attendant increase in scrutiny.

As more and more people come to expect encryption baked into their everyday communications, the fight over privacy will mushroom -- and it could get ugly.

It’s hard to know where any of this is going to go, as Politico’s unnamed EPA employee put it. But while the Trump administration sorts out the details, it’s likely that particular messages inside some agencies may be kept confidential -- especially when there’s so much writing on the wall.

Michael Andor Brodeur can be reached at mbrodeur@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MBrodeur.