In a speech yesterday David Cameron all but said he wanted to see an end to chat services which the government can't intercept. Applications like WhatsApp and Snapchat handle things differently, but both provide an end-to-end solution which the government can't monitor.

Cameron said "Do we want to allow a means of communication, between people, which even in extremis, even with a signed warrant from the home secretary we can't read". Clearly, the idea of his government being unable to get access to chat from these services is distasteful to him, and there is an implication that he might try and put a stop to services that offer encrypted chat.

It's already possible for the government to listen to your phone calls, read your email and access many other online services. We're told by Cameron in his speech that the UK has the best safeguards against misuse of this in the world. The Snowden leaks tell a different story though, and it's likely the public will be very doubtful that the government is trustworthy on this matter.

His words came after the events in Paris last week when 12 people were shot dead at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and later another four were killed at a supermarket and a police officer was shot in the street. Although it's not clear if these apps or any like them were used to plan the attacks, it seems like we're going to see governments try and push through more legislation on the subject.