UK Again Wants iCloud Backdoor

They're never going to stop. They always wait a few months and try again, hoping you're distracted.

Is this mostly a means to allow them to scale-up? Apple is a PRISM company and the US and the UK are part of Five Eyes (each govt does roundabout surveillance on each other's citizens and shares). Would backdoor laws on the books more-easily allow (or compel) other Five Eyes members to step up their efforts on UK citizens (on behalf of the UK)?

Apple should just grow a tiny little spine and not comply, perhaps temporarily suspending sales in the UK. The current government is so unpopular, this is likely an event that will see its inevitable downfall be hastened.

@Leo: Would also be an image boost for them and a strong signal to governments everywhere. We should be so lucky :)

They have not complied and have actively resisted this for years, right? So it’s not exactly a matter of growing a tiny spine.

It’s good to call them on their BS, and there is plenty of it. But it doesn’t serve anyone well to ignore the good stuff they are doing or have done recently whether or not they are perfect or perfectly consistent.

@Christopher In what sense has Apple not complied? The UK said to give them a backdoor, so Apple stopped offering iCloud Advanced Data Protection in the UK, and now all UK iCloud accounts can be accessed through the backdoor because there’s no E2EE.

And they have complied with similar requests in China, where Chinese iCloud accounts sit on Chinese state-controlled servers, accessible to all. Cook's legacy.

And let's not forget removing VPN apps from stores in Russia and China. Zero spine. They only play tough for domestic audience consumption in the US as it serves them politically and commercially, and even then, zero peeps or lobbying against numerous FISA court orders over the years.

Are companies allowed to not-comply with local laws? Is that a thing?

Not complying in advance, though, I think Apple has been pretty good at. The fact that we’re even aware this is happening is evidence of that.

Not that it’s gone away or stopped working, but Apple needs to recommit to showing people the upside of backing their phones up to their computers instead of iCloud. I wonder if there’s a whole generation of iPhone users who have the means to do this but don’t know it’s possible, much less how to do it. Seems obvious to us long-timers but I do wonder if it is to anyone else.

@else I don’t think anyone is saying some Apple exec should go to a Chinese or Russian hard labor camp. But they can choose to not sell their products there. Or stop with the privacy veneer. Or allow sideloading and then people can obtain VPN apps through other means.

@MichaelTsai That is not correct. Enrolling in ADP has been disabled but the current accounts that have been enrolled are still E2EE. Apple makes it clear in their wording: “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection
(ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users.”

@Michael_Tsai - I have clearly mistakenly attributed their refusal to allow explicit cryptography to just turning it off. Apologies for error.