The British government has secretly demanded that Apple give it blanket access to all user content uploaded to the cloud, reports The Washington Post.
The undisclosed order is said to have been issued last month, and requires that Apple creates a back door that allows UK security officials unencumbered access to encrypted user data worldwide – an unprecedented demand not before seen in any other democratic country.
Apple is likely to stop offering encrypted storage in the UK, rather than break the security promises it made to its users, people familiar with the matter told the publication. However, that would not affect the UK order for backdoor access to the service in other countries, including the United States. Apple has previously said it would consider pulling services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than compromise future security.
The order came by way of a “technical capability notice,” a document sent to Apple by the Home Secretary, ordering it to provide access under the sweeping UK Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) of 2016, labelled by critics the “Snooper’s Charter,” which authorizes law enforcement to compel assistance from companies when needed to collect evidence.
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the revelation, though the law actually makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government even made such a demand. Likewise, the Home Office told the publication that its policy was not to discuss any technical demands. “We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices,” a spokesman said.
One of the people briefed on the situation, a consultant advising the United States on encryption matters, said Apple would be barred from warning its users that its most advanced encryption no longer provided full security. The person deemed it shocking that the U.K. government was demanding Apple’s help to spy on non-British users without their governments’ knowledge. A former White House security adviser confirmed the existence of the British order.
The order would compromise Apple’s Advanced Data Protection feature, which the company launched in 2022, giving users the option to enable end-to-end encryption for many additional iCloud data categories, including Photos, Notes, Voice Memos, Messages backups, device backups, and more.
The IPA was updated in 2023 to allow the Home Office to outlaw certain encrypted services using a technical capability notice. Apple at the time called the then proposals “an unprecedented overreach by the government,” saying that if the update was enacted, “the UK could attempt to secretly veto new user protections globally preventing us from ever offering them to customers.”
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