The UK government appears to have abandoned its plans to weaken Apple’s encryption protections and include a backdoor that will allow US citizens to access protected data.
US National Intelligence Director (DNI) Tarsi Gabbard said in a statement posted to X that the US government had been working with its UK partners for the past few months to ensure that American civil liberties are protected.
“As a result, the UK has agreed to remove its mission to allow Apple to access protected, encrypted data for American citizens and provide a ‘backdoor’ that has invaded our civil liberties,” Gabbard said.
The development follows the government’s request for backdoor access to encrypted user data after Apple turned off Advanced Data Protection (ADP) capabilities in UK Icloud at the beginning of February.
“Given the continued rise in data breaches and other threats to customer privacy, we are losing serious disappointment that the protections offered by ADP are not available to UK customers,” the company was quoted as saying to Bloomberg at the time.
“As I have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or a master key for any of our products or services.
The secret orders requiring Apple to implement a “backdoor” were made in the form of a Technical Capacity Notice (TCN) issued by the UK Home Office to allow blanket access to end-to-end encrypted cloud data, even for users abroad. The order was issued in January 2025.
Critics argue that allowing access to encrypted cloud data, including backups, would essentially create a backdoor that can be exploited by cybercriminals and authoritarian governments.
Apple then pleaded for the legality of the order, and the Court of Investigation (IPT) has denied the Home Ministry’s attempt to keep the case secret.
Later last month, Google told TechCrunch that unlike Apple, it hadn’t received a request from the UK to weaken encryption protections and allow authorities to access customer data.
In a new letter sent to Gabbard, Sen. Ron Wyden said Meta “provided a clear denial.” […] “As we reported about Apple, we have not received an order that betrays the encrypted service, like the encrypted service.”
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