The UK has retreated from a controversial order that would have forced Apple to provide a backdoor to American users’ data, according to a statement from US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Here are the details.
In a post on X, Gabbard said the decision came after months of work with President Trump and Vice President Vance “to ensure Americans’ private data remains private.” She said that, as a result, the UK has agreed to drop the mandate.
As reported by Reuters, “British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in Washington on Monday along with other European leaders to meet Trump and discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine,” so it is possible this issue may also have been discussed.
A bit of context
Back in January, as first reported by The Washington Post, UK authorities confidentially issued a so-called technical capability notice under the country’s Investigatory Powers Act, a law that gives the government sweeping powers to compel tech companies to weaken encryption.
The order would have required Apple to turn off Advanced Data Protection for iCloud (ADP) for US users, so that UK agencies could access cloud backups, voice memos, and other encrypted content.
In response to the mandate, Apple removed iCloud end-to-end encryption features from the UK, and in a statement provided to 9to5Mac at the time, the company said the following:
“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature. ADP protects iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, which means the data can only be decrypted by the user who owns it, and only on their trusted devices. We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy. Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before. Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
While the mandate has been dropped, marking a win for Apple and for privacy more broadly, there is no word at this time on when, or even if, ADP will be restored in the UK, as there is no word yet on how this relates to other users worldwide.
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