Facebook's India Public Policy Director Ankhi Das on Friday submitted to a parliamentary panel probing the WhatsApp snooping scandal that the social media platform has an end-to-end encryption and it renders any effort to access the communication between its two users "unlikely from its end", sources said. The parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday called the cyber security experts to hear their views on the issue of citizens data security and privacy.

As per the notice of the meeting, the panel had also called non-official witnesses of the WhatsApp snooping row, including BJP''s former organisational secretary Govindacharya, who was represented by his lawyer in the meeting.

Representatives of WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, and the officials of Telecom and Union Home Ministry and Delhi chief secretary were also called by the panel, the notice read.

WhatsApp was represented by Das, public policy director, Facebook India, South and Central Asia, who told the panel that it is unlikely to breach the end-to-end encryption of the social media platform from its end, sources said.

Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash and officials of the Home Ministry also appeared before the panel.

In a letter to the panel''s members, Tharoor had earlier said that "Cybersecurity is a major issue on our agenda" and "we are definitely going to take this up under that rubric. And we will be seeking clarifications from the government."

In October, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unidentified entities, using an Israeli spyware -- Pegasus.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, of which India accounts for about 400 million.

Meanwhile, the WhatsApp had said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, that is reportedly behind the technology that helped unnamed entities hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users.

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The teaser video also mentions ‘Huawei Mate30 Series’ and shows a circular animated design, which appears to be the same design that we’ve seen in one of the leaked images for the rear camera setup. A recent image that hit the web, showed the alleged Mate 30 smartphone with a bold, circular camera setup at the back that includes four sensors. The flash can be seen on the top left side.

From the recently leaked images, the smartphone is supposed to feature a waterfall screen design, which is similar to that of what flagship Samsung smartphones have but slightly more extended to the sides, leaving minimal bezels on top and bottom only.

Although these two are expected to be beefy specced and powerful, the bigger still looming is its relationship with Google and the ability to use Android OS. The firm has already unveiled its Android alternative called HarmonyOS but has not yet confirmed which device will get it first. There’s also no clarity if the Mate 30 series will get future Android updates or not.