UK Backing Down on Apple Encryption Backdoor
Anna Gross, Tim Bradshaw, and Lauren Fedor (Hacker News, MacRumors):
The officials both said the Home Office, which ordered the tech giant in January to grant access to its most secure cloud storage system, would probably have to retreat in the face of pressure from senior leaders in Washington, including Vice President JD Vance.
[…]
In its order in January, the Home Office told Apple to build in a “back door” to allow law enforcement or security services to tap into the cloud storage system that stores user data that even the iPhone maker itself is currently unable to access.
It did so by issuing a “technical capability notice” under the UK Investigatory Powers Act, legislation that critics dub a “snooper’s charter” but that the government maintains is needed by law enforcement to investigate terrorism and child sexual abuse.
[…]
Last month, Meta-owned WhatsApp said it would join Apple’s legal challenge, in a rare collaboration between the Silicon Valley rivals.
Previously:
- Apple Pulls iCloud Advanced Data Protection From UK
- UK Orders Apple to Break iCloud Advanced Data Protection
- UK Proposal to Weaken Messaging Security
- Apple Opposes Updated UK Investigatory Powers Act
Update (2025-08-19): Tim Hardwick:
The British government has agreed to withdraw its controversial demand to access Apple users’ encrypted iCloud data, according to the U.S. director of intelligence.
Tulsi Gabbard said in a post on X (Twitter) the UK had dropped its plans to force Apple to provide a back door that would have “enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.”
It is unclear to me whether Gabbard is saying the U.K.’s backdoor requirement is entirely gone, or if it means the U.K. is only retreating from requiring worldwide access (or perhaps even only access to U.S. citizens’ data). The BBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post are all interpreting this as a worldwide retreat, but Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Guardian say it is only U.S. data.
Update (2025-09-03): Tim Hardwick:
The UK government’s secret demand for Apple to create backdoor access to encrypted user data was far broader than previously known, reports the Financial Times. British officials didn’t just want to break Apple’s Advanced Data Protection feature, but sought to tap a swathe of standard iCloud services used by millions worldwide.
[…]
Perhaps most significantly, the court document states that “the obligations included in the TCN are not limited to the UK or users of the service in the UK; they apply globally in respect of the relevant data categories of all iCloud users.”
[…]
One person familiar with the case told FT they were “still very concerned this is still going on,” despite public statements from U.S. officials about the UK backing down.
Update (2025-09-04): Nick Heer:
It is routine for law enforcement to request access to individual iCloud accounts, and Apple says it complies to the best of its ability with legal requests. But “bulk interception access” would go well beyond these kinds of targeted requests and reverting to the kind of global surveillance apparatus made public in 2013.
[…]
Again, the secrecy around this prevents us from gaining specificity or clarity. It even requires the judges to rely on “assumed facts” which, as Bradshaw and Gross write, are “not the same as asserting that [they are] factually the case”, because they cannot confirm the existence of the technical capability notice.
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The Starmer government in the UK is getting so unpopular, has Apple actually announced it was leaving the UK on principle, it is more than likely it would have brought an end to this government. But no principle is left in that wretched company’s upper management.
