UK may be seeking to pull back from Apple encryption row with US
UK government officials say that attempts by the Home Office to require Apple to introduce ‘back doors’ to its secure encrypted storage service will cross US red lines
The government may be seeking to pull back from a diplomatic row with the US over UK demands to require Apple to give the UK access to secure data stored by Apple users.
UK government officials have told the Financial Times that pressure from senior US officials, including the vice president, JD Vance, could force the UK to retreat from the plan.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, issued a notice against Apple under the Investigatory Powers Act in January, requiring the company to provide law enforcement with the capability to access encrypted data stored by Apple users on Apple’s iCloud service.
The move has attracted opposition from both Democratic and Republican law makers in the US, and has been criticised by president Trump and JD Vance, who object to the UK interfering with US technology companies.
Two government officials, believed to be from the Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), told the Financial Times that the UK’s decision to force Apple to break its end-to-end encryption could disrupt technology agreements with the US.
“One of the challenges for the tech partnerships we’re working on is the encryption issue,” one official said. “It is a big red line in the US: they don’t want us messing with their tech companies.”
“This is something that the vice-president is very annoyed about and which needs to be resolved,” the official added. “The Home Office is basically going to have to back down.”
A second official said that the Home Office had “its back against the wall” and that the problem was of the “Home Office’s own making”.
The government maintains that it needs access to Apple customers’ secure files in order for law enforcement to investigate terrorism and child sexual abuse.
The government order, known as a Technical Capability Notice, however led Apple to withdraw its secure Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service from UK customers.
The company is now challenging the lawfulness of the Home Office’s order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
Computer Weekly previously reported that WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging service owned by Meta, has agreed to provide legal submissions in support of Apple.
Civil Society groups, Amnesty and Privacy International have filed a separate claim to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal challenging the Home Office.
A third senior British official told the Financial Times that the UK government was reluctant to push “anything that looks to the US vice-president like a free-speech issue”.
The US vice president, JD Vance, attacked Europe and the UK in February for opposing free speech on social media and more generally in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he said.
The US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a letter published in the same month that she shared concerns raised by Congress over reports that the UK has issued an order against Apple that could “undermine Americans’ privacy and civil liberties”.
President Donald Trump confirmed in an interview with The Spectator that he had raised the Apple TCN with prime minister Keir Starmer during his visit to Washington, comparing the UK’s actions to the conduct of China.
"We actually told him (Starmer) … that's incredible. That's something, you know, that you hear about with China," he said.
Ben Collier, Chair of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, a think tank for internet policy which today published a report on the Apple affair, said that it was not surprising that the Home Office’s attempt to compel Apple to undermine the security of its products is facing resistance from the US.
“Tactics like issuing encryption removal orders to tech companies will only make every iPhone user in the UK less secure. As the UK government’s own guidance for companies and the public makes clear, strong encryption is at the heart of keeping the services we all use safe and secure. There is no way to undermine encryption which doesn’t leave huge weaknesses that criminals and hostile state actors can exploit,” he said.
“Law enforcement have much more effective tactics – ones which don’t involve undermining our shared security – to investigate and disrupt serious criminal activity where encryption is being used. The government would be sensible to step back and retract this notice, and instead focus on the important work of renewing the UK’s basic infrastructure, digital security, and privacy protections,” he added.
Timeline of UK government’s order for a backdoor into Apple’s encrypted iCloud service
12 June: Apple encryption row: Does law enforcement need to use Technical Capability Notices? History shows that law enforcement can bring successful prosecutions without the need for the Home Office to introduce ‘backdoors’ into end-to-end encryption
11 June: WhatsApp seeks to join Apple in legal challenge against Home Office encryption orders -WhatsApp today applied to intervene in an Investigatory Powers Tribunal case that is considering the UK’s ability to issue a technical capability notice on Apple to ‘weaken encryption’
11 June: Government using national security as ‘smokescreen’ in Apple encryption row – Senior conservative MP David Davis says the Home Office should disclose how many secret orders it has issued against telecoms and internet companies to Parliament
5 June: US politicians are calling for Congress to rewrite the US Cloud Act to prevent the UK issuing orders to require US tech companies to introduce ‘backdoors’ in end-to-end encrypted messaging and storage
15 April: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is a semi-secret judicial body that has made significant legal rulings on privacy, surveillance and the use of investigatory powers. What does it do and why is it important?
7 April: Investigatory Powers Tribunal rejects Home Office arguments that identifying the ‘bare details’ of legal action by Apple would damage national security, leaving open possibility of future open court hearings
02 April: Apple has appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over an order by home secretary Yvette Cooper to give the UK access to customers’ data protected by Advanced Data Protection encryption. What happens next?
7 February: Tech companies brace after UK demands backdoor access to Apple cloud – The UK has served a notice on Apple demanding backdoor access to encrypted data stored by users anywhere in the world on Apple’s cloud service.
10 February: Apple: British techies to advise on ‘devastating’ UK global crypto power grab – A hitherto unknown British organisation, which even the government may have forgotten about, is about to be drawn into a global technical and financial battle, facing threats from Apple to pull out of the UK.
13 February: UK accused of political ‘foreign cyber attack’ on US after serving secret snooping order on Apple – US administration asked to kick UK out of 65-year-old UK-US Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement after secret order to access encrypted data of Apple users.
14 February: Top cryptography experts join calls for UK to drop plans to snoop on Apple’s encrypted data – Some of the world’s leading computer science experts have signed an open letter calling for home secretary Yvette Cooper to drop a controversial secret order to require Apple to provide access to users’ encrypted data.
21 February: Apple withdraws encrypted iCloud storage from UK after government demands ‘backdoor’ access – After the Home Office issued a secret order for Apple to open up a backdoor in its encrypted storage, the tech company has instead chosen to withdraw the service from the UK.
26 February: US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard probes UK demand for Apple’s encrypted data – A secret order issued by the UK against Apple would be a ‘clear and egregious violation’ if it provides back door access to Americans’ encrypted data, says US director of national intelligence.
5 March: Apple IPT appeal against backdoor encryption order is test case for bigger targets – The Home Office decision to target Apple with an order requiring access to users’ encrypted data is widely seen as a ‘stalking horse’ for attacks against encrypted messaging services WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.
11 March: Secret London tribunal to hear appeal in Apple vs government battle over encryption – A secret tribunal is due to meet at the High Court in London to hear tech giant Apple appeal against a Home Office order to compromise the encryption of data stored by its customers on the iCloud service worldwide.
13 March: US Congress demands UK lifts gag on Apple encryption order – Apple and Google have told US lawmakers that they cannot tell Congress whether they have received technical capability notices from the UK.
14 March: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal holds a day-long secret hearing into an appeal brought by Apple against a government notice requiring it to provide law enforcement access to data encrypted by its Advanced Data Protection service on the iCloud, despite calls for the hearing to be opened to the public.
24 March: Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International – Why I am challenging Yvette Cooper’s ‘secret backdoor’ order against Apple’s encryption.
31 March: Apple devices are at ‘most risk’ in UK following government ‘backdoor’ order, Lord Strasburger tells the House of Lords as a Home Office minister declines to give answers.
Originally published at ECT News
