US spy chief says the UK has removed demand for apple backdoors

According to US National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard, the UK has removed the demand for special access to Apple’s cloud systems, or “backdoors,” following negotiations with the Trump administration.

“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 “back door” that has been violated by our civil liberties.”

This is what I’ve seen the UK government secretly request Apple and secretly request access from authorities (which essentially require a backdoor), and have seen them request access anywhere in the world, especially those who turn on advanced data protection (or ADP), an opt-in security feature, especially anywhere in the world. ADP turns on end-to-end encryption for iCloud. This means that only users can access files stored on Apple’s cloud servers.

The existence of legal demand was first reported by the Washington Post in February. This was done under the British Research Power Act 2016, also known as the Snoopers Charter. This request sparked rage and condemnation from privacy and security experts around the world. He argued that if the UK government gets what it wants, it will weaken global privacy and even with the technology of other companies, it will open doors for more governments to make similar demands.

Apple first responded by removing ADP from the UK. This means that new users were unable to turn it on. The company also said it would provide guidance to existing users who “eventually need to disable this security feature.”

In the meantime, Apple also reportedly challenged a backdoor mandate in court.

Apple and the UK Home Office, which launched requests on behalf of the UK government, did not respond to requests for comment.

Olivia Coleman, spokesman for the US Director of National Intelligence, introduced a February letter to Senator Wyden and Biggs.

Apple previously told TechCrunch that the company “has never built a backdoor or a master key” for any of its products or services.

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