Apple clashes with the UK government over backdoor access to citizens’ information
Apple has again been ordered to allow the UK government access to the encrypted cloud back-ups of British users.
This comes after a similar request inflamed tensions with US President Trump earlier this year.
The Home Office instructed the tech giant to create a back door for governments to get past encryption in users’ cloud backup storage service, specifying that the access would concern only the data of British citizens.
A technical capability notice was previously issued in January and requested global access to encrypted user data, prompting a diplomatic row between the US and UK governments.
Apple to offer reduced protection
In response, Apple said it can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection in the United Kingdom to new users.
“We are deeply disappointed that our customers in the UK will no longer have the option to enable Advanced Data Protection (ADP), especially given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy.”
Apple said it remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data, and we 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.”
Apple said that reduced privacy features will have the following impact:
- Withdrawing Advanced Data Protection from the UK will not affect the 15 iCloud data categories that are end-to-end encrypted by default. Data such as iCloud Keychain and Health remains protected with full end-to-end encryption.
- Communication services, such as iMessage and FaceTime, remain end-to-end encrypted globally, including in the UK.
- Users in the UK who have not already enabled Advanced Data Protection will no longer have the option to do so. That means the 10 iCloud data categories covered by ADP will be protected by Standard Data Protection, and UK users will not have a choice to benefit from end-to-end encryption for these categories: iCloud Backup; iCloud Drive; Photos; Notes; Reminders; Safari Bookmarks; Siri Shortcuts; Voice Memos; Wallet Passes; and Freeform.
- For users in the UK who have 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.
- Advanced Data Protection continues to be available everywhere else in the world.
