WHATSAPP • GETTY Secure, end-to-end encryption should not be allowed online, the MI5 Director General has claimed

MI5 boss Andrew Parker has requested new powers to allow his agency to monitor online communications, a move which could lead to the banning of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and iMessage. Mr Parker claims online firms like Facebook and Twitter have a "responsibility" to share information about their users with the UK government. WhatsApp, iMessage, SnapChat and many other popular online messaging services use end-to-end encryption to keep your texts and multimedia safe from prying eyes. Prime Minister Cameron had previously hoped to outlaw this high level of privacy, in an effort to help law enforcement services track and monitor potential terrorist threats.

But this secure level of encryption prevents the government from being able to monitor messages from people of interest, sent using these online services. Arguing against strong encryption, Mr Parker said that the current terrorist threat to the UK was at its highest level in three decades. British police currently make a request to access personal metadata – texts, emails, phone calls and internet searches – once every two minutes in the UK, according to data from campign group Big Brother Watch.

They are using secure apps and internet communication to try to broadcast their message and incite and direct terrorism Andrew Parker

The Director-General of the British Security Services said strong encryption was "creating a situation where law enforcement agencies and security agencies can no longer obtain under proper legal warrant the contents of communications between people they have reason to believe are terrorists." "They are using secure apps and internet communication to try to broadcast their message and incite and direct terrorism amongst people who live here who are prepared to listen to their message," he said, during an interview on BBC Radio 4.

Andrew Parker, Director General of the Security Service [PH]

Mr Parker said it was "in nobody's interests that terrorists should be able to plot and communicate out of the reach of any authorities with proper legal power." The comment mirrors a remark made by Prime Minister David Cameron back in January, who said: "In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which, even in extremis, with a signed warrant from the home secretary personally, that we cannot read? "Are we going to allow a means of communication where it simply isn't possible to do that? And my answer to that question is no we must not. "The first duty of any government is to keep our people and our country safe." MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Boris Johnson has previously spelled out the Conservative government's anti-encryption goals. "I'm not interested in this civil liberties stuff. If they're a threat, I want their emails and calls listened to," he said.

GETTY Theresa May has been granted permission to appeal the EU decision on encryption

Both UK and US governments have previously requested that technology firms create a backdoor – a secret key to bypass encryption – to allow agencies like MI5 and the NSA to monitor select conversions. But security experts and computer scientists have repeatedly pointed out that criminals could use the same backdoor to access everyone's secure messages. A number of technology companies, including Apple, have spoken out against the measures and refused to remove end-to-end encryption from their messaging services. CEO Tim Cook cautioned that Apple has "never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services ... and we never will."

WHATSAPP WhatsApp, like many other popular messaging apps, boasts end-to-end encryption for your texts