- The United Kingdom could soon be back on his demand for an apple encryption back door
- US officials, including Vice President JD VanceAt have put a strong pressure against it
- Apple killed its iCloud’s end-to-end encryption feature in Britain in February and then challenged the order in court
The United Kingdom could soon return from its demand against Apple to create an encryption back door in its iCloud encryption.
As two senior British officials informed about the case told The Financial Times, Stormer’s government is looking for a way out to avoid a clash with Trump’s administration. US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have put a strong pressure on the order, warning against “systemic vulnerabilities” that such a back door could create.
Apple killed its iCloud’s end-to-end encryption feature in the UK in February after being hit by a technical capacity message (TCN) under 2016 -Investigation Powers. This would allow law enforcement to assess users’ data, whether encrypted. In April, the Big Tech Company contested this request for court.
“A big red line”
Despite not being a standard feature when Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP), when not enabled, is an additional layer of protection on all iCloud-posted data using end-to-end encryption technology. This means that not even Apple can access these files.
However, the British authorities see this extra layer of security as an obstacle to their criminal investigations and have been pushing for a legal way to make people’s data available when needed.
However, according to British officials, such a request is a “large red line in the United States” that could jeopardize the commercial relationships between the two governments.
“They don’t want us to mess with their tech companies,” they said, adding that the United States put the home office with “back against the wall.”
“It’s a problem with the home office’s own creation and they are working on a way around it now,” they added.
Over 100 Internet leaders, academics, organizations and businesses have expressed their alarm with the British government’s attempt to create back doors on encrypted backups. They require it to stop. Read the full open letter here ⬇ https://t.co/khbxrh114a13 February 2025
U.S. officials are not alone in raising concerns about the US encryption of the backdoor request. Over 100 Internet leaders, academics, organizations and companies raised the alarm a few days after the authorities issued the back door order of the encryption.
Encryption is responsible for preventing unauthorized access to users’ data. Specifically, the best VPN and Secure Messaging apps use end-to-end encryption to ensure online communication remains private between the sender and the recipient.
However, a worrying and stable increase in cyber attacks shows how important encryption is for privacy and security for everyone’s data. For example, in the wake of Salt Typhoon attack, even FBI and CISA experts have called on citizens to switch to encrypted services.
As mentioned earlier, while Apple decided to remove advanced data protection so as not to build a back door for iCloud, the Big Tech giant and the home office are still fighting the case in court at the time of writing. But of crucial importance, WhatsApp last month supported public Apple in his legal battle that “could set a dangerous precedent,” the encrypted messaging app told the BBC.
What is certain, however, is that the United Kingdom is not the only country that wants to undermine encryption in the name of public security.
In the latest of these efforts, the EU Commission has revealed its plan to enable law enforcement agencies to decrypt citizens’ private data by 2030.
