Entering ChinaAccording to media reports, the British government had ordered Apple to build a “backdoor” that would give it access to global user data.
British authorities issued a secret order in January asking Apple to bypass the encryption technology it uses to protect user data in cloud services, according to people familiar with the matter.
The legal basis for the order is the UK’s Investigative Powers Act, which gives government officials the power to force companies to remove encryption, known as “technical capability notices.” The bill also makes it illegal for businesses to disclose when the government issued such orders.
The incident appears to be related to Apple’s introduction of iCloud’s advanced data protection feature in 2022. This is an optional feature that can provide encryption for most of the data in the user’s iCloud account, including text messages and device backups.
It’s unclear how Apple responded to the British government’s request, but the company said in March that “protecting user privacy and data security is at the heart of everything we do” and that it was “deeply concerned about the proposed amendments.”
“This is an unprecedented abuse by the government. If implemented, the UK government may try to secretly prevent us from providing new protections to users around the world,” Apple said at the time.
One of Apple’s possible responses to compliance with the UK authorities’ law is to disable the feature for UK users.
Apple has defended its introduction of encryption in its products, saying it is “essential to prevent illegal surveillance, identity theft, fraud and data breaches, as well as an important protection against malicious attacks on journalists, human rights activists and diplomats.” ”
The British government has often criticized social media and messaging platforms for using strong encryption to prevent authorities from censoring private communications and other shared content online, arguing that it makes it difficult to investigate serious crimes such as terrorism and child sexual exploitation.
Apple has long faced government pressure to weaken or bypass encryption.
In the aftermath of the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, the FBI asked Apple to create a “back door” that would give the agency access to the data of the perpetrators of the attacks. Apple’s refusal to cooperate with the FBI has sparked a major privacy controversy in the United States. Eventually, the U.S. government hacked the device through a third party, ending the storm.
