{"id":49458,"date":"2025-10-01T16:24:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=49458"},"modified":"2025-10-05T16:52:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:52:26","slug":"uk-again-wants-icloud-backdoor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/01\/uk-again-wants-icloud-backdoor\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Again Wants iCloud Backdoor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/789985\/apple-uk-revived-secret-order-encryption-backdoor\">Jess Weatherbed<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=45440226\">Hacker News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/privacy\/comments\/1nvabm3\/uk_government_issues_new_order_to_access_icloud\/\">Reddit<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2025\/10\/01\/uk-issues-new-order-for-icloud-data\/\">MacRumors<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/10\/01\/the-british-government-is-still-insisting-apple-has-to-create-a-backdoor-into-icloud\/\">9to5Mac<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/789985\/apple-uk-revived-secret-order-encryption-backdoor\"><p>The UK government is reportedly once again demanding that Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud user data, following claims that the effort had been abandoned in August. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d101fd62-14f9-4f51-beff-ea41e8794265\"><em>The Financial Times<\/em><\/a> reports that a new technical capability notice (TCN) was issued by the UK Home Office in early September, this time specifically targeting access to British citizens&rsquo; iCloud backups.<\/p><p>[&#8230;]<\/p><p>While US officials raised concerns about the order during President Trump&rsquo;s state visit to the UK last month, according to <em>The Financial Times<\/em>, the publication reports that two senior British government figures said the UK was no longer facing US pressure to drop its demands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dafacto\/status\/1973355594758115614\">Matt Henderson<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dafacto\/status\/1973355594758115614\">\n<p>Just returned from the UK, where a digital ID is about to be enforced on all adults. Soon, my Signal messages may be scanned. Financial policing co-opted to the institutions with KYC and draconian source-of-funds investigation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/uk-online-safety-act\/\">UK Online Safety Act<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/21\/uk-backing-down-on-apple-encryption-backdoor\/\">UK Backing Down on Apple Encryption Backdoor<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/03\/france-rejects-backdoor-mandate\/\">France Rejects Backdoor Mandate<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/25\/fbi-also-wants-to-break-icloud-advanced-data-protection\/\">FBI Also Wants to Break iCloud Advanced Data Protection<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/21\/apple-pulls-icloud-advanced-data-protection-from-uk\/\">Apple Pulls iCloud Advanced Data Protection From UK<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/07\/uk-orders-apple-to-break-icloud-advanced-data-protection\/\">UK Orders Apple to Break iCloud Advanced Data Protection<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/04\/proposed-eu-chat-control\/\">Proposed EU Chat Control<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/21\/apple-dropped-plans-for-end-to-end-encrypted-icloud-backups-after-fbi-objected\/\">Apple Dropped Plans for End-to-End Encrypted iCloud Backups After FBI Objected<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"uk-again-wants-icloud-backdoor-update-2025-10-04\">Update (<a href=\"#uk-again-wants-icloud-backdoor-update-2025-10-04\">2025-10-04<\/a>): <a href=\"https:\/\/pxlnv.com\/linklog\/uk-icloud-adp-redux\/\">Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/pxlnv.com\/linklog\/uk-icloud-adp-redux\/\">\n<p>Reporters like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/19\/technology\/britain-apple-back-door.html\">Tripp Mickle<\/a>, at the <em>New York Times<\/em>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/08\/19\/uk-apple-backdoor-data-privacy-gabbard\/\">Annabelle Timsit and Joseph Menn<\/a>, of the <em>Washington Post<\/em>, were too eager to claim the U.K. would wholly abandon its pursuit of customer data. Neither allowed for different interpretations of Gabbard&rsquo;s tweet. Journalists like these have sources who could have offered clarity. It is unclear in either article whether they did reach out to their contacts; if they did, their stories were misleading even with &mdash; or perhaps because of &mdash; that information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/122234\">Apple<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/122234\"><p>Withdrawing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2022\/12\/apple-advances-user-security-with-powerful-new-data-protections\/\">Advanced Data Protection<\/a> from the UK will not affect the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/102651\">15 iCloud data categories<\/a> that are end-to-end encrypted by default. Data like iCloud Keychain and Health remains protected with full end-to-end encryption.<\/p><p>Our communication services, like iMessage and FaceTime, remain end-to-end encrypted globally, including in the UK.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We&rsquo;re back to the same situation as before, where Apple insists that iMessage is E2EE, which is technically true for the iMessage service. But unless you and everyone you message with opts out of iCloud Backup, Apple stores the encryption key and can access all of your message data.<\/p>\n\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/122234\"><p>For users in the UK who already enabled Advanced Data Protection, Apple will soon provide additional guidance. Apple cannot disable ADP automatically for these users. Instead, UK users will be given a period of time to disable the feature themselves to keep using their iCloud account.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So Apple is currently not complying in full, but it plans to.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/0x0.boo\/post\/3m262lj734k2i\">0x0.boo<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/0x0.boo\/post\/3m262lj734k2i\"><p>&#xE0001;&#xE007F;It&rsquo;s probably the TCN&rsquo;s that are in place, that you don&rsquo;t know about, that are the current biggest threat.<\/p><p>That&rsquo;s not to take away anything from this new TCN, or make light of it, it&rsquo;s a big deal.<\/p><p>But think about what&rsquo;s likely already in place with other companies as you go about your business.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/14\/reminder-imessage-not-meaningfully-e2e\/\">Reminder: iMessage Not Meaningfully E2E<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jess Weatherbed (Hacker News, Reddit, MacRumors, 9to5Mac): The UK government is reportedly once again demanding that Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud user data, following claims that the effort had been abandoned in August. The Financial Times reports that a new technical capability notice (TCN) was issued by the UK Home Office [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-01T20:24:22Z","apple_news_api_id":"01e7df6e-b931-4473-9589-24d2ecd1cac0","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-05T20:52:29Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AAeffbrkxRHOViSTS7NHKwA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38,16,2729,140,2741,209,355,2166],"class_list":["post-49458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-icloud","tag-icloud-advanced-data-protection","tag-imessage","tag-ios-26","tag-legal","tag-privacy","tag-united-kingdom"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49458"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49517,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49458\/revisions\/49517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}