David Cameron’s new ‘snoopers charter’ could see the apps banned (Picture: File)

You should make full use of WhatsApp, Snapchat and iMessage because you may not have them for much longer.

The popular apps could be banned under new laws as they use encrypted messages.

The government sees this as a potential security concern and home secretary Theresa May hopes to ban the types of messages with the controversial ‘snooper’s charter’, aka the Draft Communications Data Bill.

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What is the Snoopers' Charter? It’s actually called the Communications Data Bill. Under the proposed law companies that provide internet services would have to document the online activity of customers. They would have to keep these logs for 12 months. The bill was blocked by the Liberal Democrats in 2013. It could be law by 2016.

She is planning to bring forward a new version of the bill – blocked by the Liberal Democrats in the last administration – in the autumn.



And because the Conservatives now have a majority it is likely to go through, with the new law being put in place next year.

There is always hope, with WhatsApp, Snapchat and iMessage likely to stay if they meet the new restrictions.

But this means that the government will probably be able to see that rather unfortunate Snapchat you sent your ex if they want to.

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