The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that dirty jokes and legally dubious information are increasingly being trafficked over the new private lines of Wall Street -- encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that from traders to bankers and money managers, just about everyone in finance is embracing these apps as an easy, and virtually untraceable, way to circumvent compliance, get around the HR police and keep bosses in the dark. It is happening despite the industry's efforts to crack down on unmonitored communications. The widespread use of encrypted apps is also raising a deeper concern: It could enable reckless behaviour that is all but impossible to police. Just this week, a former Jefferies Group banker was fined in the United Kingdom for sharing confidential data on WhatsApp. The rules are clear. Financial firms need to keep records of all written business communications, no matter how innocuous, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Asset managers are bound by similar regulations. In January, Deutsche Bank AG banned text messages and apps such as WhatsApp globally.