{"id":1331,"date":"2025-10-01T21:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/the-uks-war-on-apple-encryption-is-back\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T21:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:13:18","slug":"the-uks-war-on-apple-encryption-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/the-uks-war-on-apple-encryption-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s war on Apple encryption is back"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/02\/STK478_breaking_into_phone_B.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\" \/><figcaption>\n\t\t<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The UK government is reportedly once again demanding that Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud user data, following claims that the effort had been abandoned in August. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d101fd62-14f9-4f51-beff-ea41e8794265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Financial Times<\/em><\/a> reports that a new technical capability notice (TCN) was issued by the UK Home Office in early September, this time specifically targeting access to British citizens\u2019 iCloud backups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">This follows the UK issuing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/608145\/apple-uk-icloud-encrypted-backups-spying-snoopers-charter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">broader secret order in January<\/a>, demanding that Apple create a backdoor for security officials to access global encrypted user files. While it\u2019s a criminal offense to reveal the existence of these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/policy\/621848\/uk-killing-encryption-e2e-apple-adp-privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">secret TCN orders<\/a>, Apple responded by filing an appeal and removing a feature, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/617273\/apple-removes-encryption-advanced-data-protection-adp-uk-spying-backdoor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advanced Data Protection<\/a>, its end-to-end encrypted iCloud storage, from the UK. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/710504\/uk-apple-encryption-back-door-icloud-adp-backing-down\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">facing pressure from the US<\/a> regarding potential violations of the Cloud Act, it was announced by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/761240\/uk-apple-us-encryption-back-door-demands-dropped\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Britain had rescinded the order<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\u201cThe UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a \u2018back door\u2019 that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DNIGabbard\/status\/1957623737232007638\" target=\"_blank\">Gabbard posted to X on August 19th<\/a>. While US officials raised concerns about the order during President Trump\u2019s state visit to the UK last month, according to <em>The Financial Times<\/em>, the publication reports that two senior British government figures said the UK was no longer facing US pressure to drop its demands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">We have reached out to Apple for comment. The UK Home Office declined to comment on the situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The UK\u2019s revived attempt to bypass Apple\u2019s data encryption has sparked concerns that security and privacy may still be impacted for users worldwide. \u201cIf Apple breaks end-to-end encryption for the UK, it breaks it for everyone,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/privacyinternational.org\/news-analysis\/5685\/second-order-uk-governments-new-secret-order-still-strikes-apples-security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Privacy International<\/a>, a non-profit privacy watchdog. \u201cThe resulting vulnerability can be exploited by hostile states, criminals and other bad actors the world over.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK government is reportedly once again demanding that Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud user data, [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}