The White House has succeeded in forcing British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper into an humiliating U-turn over attempts to forcibly access iPhone users’ encrypted data. The Home Office had demanded that Apple create a backdoor access mechanism that could be accessed by the Government to investigate criminals.
Apple insisted that any backdoor that could be used by a government to access encrypted user data could also be accessed by criminals and put individuals’ security at risk. In a statement on Tuesday, the US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said she had managed to get the British Government to abandon its demands. Ms Gabbard told the Financial Times: “The vice president negotiated a mutually beneficial understanding that the UK Government will withdraw the current backdoor order to Apple.”
“Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside President Trump and vice president Vance, to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.
“I’m happy to share that the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a back door that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.”
Ms Cooper’s attempt to access private user data sparked outrage in February, with human rights group Amnesty International warning the move would put “anyone critical of the authorities at increased risk”.
Joshua Franco, the organisation’s senior tech research adviser, said: “Governments have more and more powerful legal and technical tools at their disposal, and research shows that they are using them to target people for protesting, speaking out, or even just because of what they represent.
“Strong encryption is one of the few protections we have against such attacks, and states should be encouraging companies to provide greater protections of our data and our rights, not seeking back doors that will leave people around the world at risk.”
Human Rights Watch’s Zach Campbell added that the move was “an alarming overreach by the UK authorities”.
Dray Agha, senior manager of security operations at cybersecurity firm Huntress, explained: “Weakening encryption not only makes UK users more vulnerable to cyber threats but also sets a dangerous precedent for global privacy. Governments argue this helps law enforcement, but history shows that any backdoor created for one party can eventually be exploited by bad actors.
“The broader concern is that this move could pressure other companies to weaken their security, putting personal data worldwide at greater risk.”
A UK official told the FT “we can’t and we won’t” force Apple to provide a back door for encrypted access.
The move comes shortly after an official report from the US State Department warned that human rights are under siege in Britain thanks to crackdowns on free speech both offline and in the real world.
The report said human rights have specifically “worsened during the year” since Keir Starmer came to power, and flagged the “two-tier” justice system accusations born of the Southport riots last year.
They branded crackdowns of online speech “an especially grievous example of government censorship, censorship of ordinary Britons”.