UK orders Apple to give it access to users’ encrypted accounts, Washington Post reports

41 comments

1. > Britain’s security officials have ordered that Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab create a so-called ‘back door’ allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, The Washington Post reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter.

   It has begun.

   > The iPhone maker is likely to stop offering encrypted storage in the UK, rather than break the security promises it made to its users everywhere, the report said, citing unnamed sources.

   Welcome to a society without secure services.

2. Utterly mad. Amazed Apple will not turn down this request or simply threaten not to sell them in the UK. They’d change their tune pretty quick then.

3. So, where are the IfYouveGotNothingToHideYouHaveNothingToFear brigade? They usually turn up to these threads pretty sharpish.

4. Ah yes time for my daily reminder that the concept of privacy is long forgotten in the modern world.

   These fucking governments are pathetic. Cost of living going up, rising inequality, civil unrest, public services going down the pan in the face of underfunding.

   What do we do? Invade citizens privacy more. Good stuff. Cunts.

5. Every few years some authoritarian moron suggests this nonsense and every few years they get slapped down.

   If you’re not familiar with the history, google the “Clipper Chip”.

   The technological ignorance demonstrated by this government is frankly embarrassing.

6. “retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud”

   Good luck with that I guess?

7. What’s the point? Because even when people are flagged as potential risks, the police do fuck all about it anyway? They’ll continue to spy on everybody In the name of “safety” but refuse to act on their findings.

8. Jfc, can we have just a few weeks at least without some authoritarian bullshit being thrust upon us.

9. I see a lot of people saying that this is the thin end of the wedge and they will be coming for this on all platforms.

   I work in enterprise grade storage for UK companies running international business. Everything we work with is encrypted and in most cases re-encrypted as it moves between storage.

   This is a legal requirement for insurance alongside hosting certain types of information.

   So where does this end? Whats to stop someone in a small compaby just keeping all their personal stuff in enterprise grade cloud storage thats encrypted with your own keys

10. I’m am not and have never been Tory voter, but I must say Labour governments do this every single time they get into power. They are obsessed with constantly writing legislation that eats away at civil liberties and privacy under the boogeyman of “crime and national security.” Whether it’s insane internet censorship or National ID schemes or counter terror laws that dance the on the line of violating European Human Rights such as indefinite detention without charge. Starmer’s government is just a repackaged version of Blair’s new Labour platform, the problem is that like New Pence or New Order, New Labour isn’t that new anymore, they tried going back to the Corbyn socialist club front bench and they suffered a humiliating defeat as the majority of British voters don’t particularly like old school socialist politicians. As a consequence of all this, Labour is forced to enter the murky grey waters of “centrist politics” which tend to please no one and upset everyone. This Labour government will only serve a single term as 7 months in and they are already more unpopular than the Tories, who happen to be a collection of incredibly unlikeable people. Go figure. The moral of the story is don’t elect a prosecutor to be Prime Minister, they see EVERYTHING as a proverbial nail that must be hammered in by legislation.

11. Did you learn nothing from the Salt Typhoon attack? I know America is trying their hardest not to, but the hack exploited these kind of “official back doors” particularly because getting access to the system means you’ve now got access to everything. It’s too juicy of a target for local crooks but especially well equipped foreign adversaries. This is advocating for knocking down a solid wall to replace it with a paper thin door on weak hinges, and telling us it’s just as safe and secure as before, after your neighbors were just broken into in that exact scenario.

12. This is why I hate people who have zero knowledge of a matter passing legislation on it.

    You don’t put a back doors in to encryption for a good fucking reason if there is a back door it falls apart.

13. F*** the UK government. This is by definition a police state. Hilariously, our only option is immense pressure from other countries seeing as they’re now demanding access to other country citizens data.

14. I have to admit, I kept reading people in the comments mentioning the UK had laws to force people to give up their encryption keys or face fines / jail time and I thought it was sketchy at best, so out of curiosity I asked ChatGPT, this was the reply I got:

    >”Yes, there is some truth to that statement. In the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 includes provisions that require individuals to provide decryption keys to law enforcement when requested. Failure to comply with this requirement can lead to criminal penalties, including imprisonment.

    >Specifically, Section 49 of RIPA allows authorities to issue a notice requiring a person to provide access to encrypted information. If a person fails to comply with such a notice, they can face a fine or imprisonment for up to two years.

    >This law has raised concerns regarding privacy and the extent of government surveillance, but it is indeed a legal requirement in the UK.”

    I’m even more shocked that it was introduced in the year 2000 and I’d never even heard of it, learn something new everyday.

    Can’t even blame the Conservatives for it either, was Tony Blair, Sheesh.

15. I hate the implications of the OSA. It’s difficult to talk about because people immediately assume that if you’re against it then I must be worried about something bad getting out that I’m hiding. 

    I am at the point now where in the seven stages of grief I’m getting toward acceptance. I’ve been angry, depressed, I’ve emailed my MP, and now I’m just fed up of feeling like this and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. 

    I’m going to need to prove my ID on loads of websites, adult and otherwise. I’m going to lose access to dozens of small forums I visit for hobbies. Nothing online will be secure and private again. 

    I’ve got tor, I’ve got a vpn, I am pretty tech savvy but the fact is that next month the internet as it is now ceases to exist in the uk. But the genuine problems of people being relentlessly exploited by social media giants will go untouched, despite the overwhelming evidence to show that meta, musk et al have sinister ambitions. The misinformation pushed by conspiracies and propaganda from all extremes of the political spectrum will continue to radicalise the public unimpeded but the right to any semblance of privacy for normal people is going away. 

    Of all the tech companies I had sort of hoped Apple would resist these insane attempts to break encryption, since privacy on Apple devices has been a selling point for years. 

    The worst part of this all is, no matter who got your vote, they all want this. It’ll only get worse. 

    I sincerely hope that come the 15th march so much damage is done and the public backlash is so severe that they’re forced to rescind it. I doubt it though. 

16. If GCHQ can’t even hack Apple then what’s their point?

    Are they too busy with Russia and China and it’s just not worth their time or are they really that incompetent that the UK government have to go ask for the data?

17. This is a blatant abuse of power—a legal, yet absolutely outrageous overreach into our private lives. The UK government’s move to force Apple to create a backdoor is a dangerous precedent that not only strips away our right to privacy but also sets us on a collision course with a dystopian future. The fact that Apple would commit a crime to even tell us that they have been requested to implement a backdoor is outrageous abuse of power.

    It’s no secret that the government has repeatedly exploited vaguely defined laws like those against online hate to justify invasive surveillance. Now, with this order, they’re effectively giving law enforcement carte blanche to rummage through every digital corner of our lives, even on a global scale. Imagine a scenario where a flimsy or entirely unrelated charge could be used as a pretext to pry into your personal communications and cloud storage—finding incriminating evidence after the fact. This isn’t about protecting us; it’s about normalizing a system where the state can intrude into our digital lives with impunity.

    And let’s not forget where technology is heading. With AI evolving at breakneck speed, we’re staring down the barrel of a reality where real-time, massive surveillance isn’t science fiction—it’s an imminent threat. The tools already in play, reminiscent of the methods exploited by Cambridge Analytica, are only the tip of the iceberg. Soon, systems that mimic the mass population-level controls depicted in Orwell’s 1984 could become an everyday reality. In a world where every digital interaction is monitored, our freedoms are not only at risk—they’re being systematically dismantled.

18. I hope every company in the world tells the UK government to fuck off rather than implement these insane privacy destroying backdoors. Utter lunacy.

19. And people are worried about Trump lol 😂 Starmer is aiming to become a mini Xi Ping

20. Abso-fucking-lutely insane overreach. Anyone who actively supports this has an IQ no greater than room temperature.

21. And nobody ever said that someone could not subvert a government?

    Looks westwards, sheepishly.

22. I hope Apple threaten to stop selling in the UK. Completely mad politicians.

23. So they can arrest you for speech and also access your encrypted conversations? Sounds like a great combination…

24. Western countries will bleat on about how china/russia etc want to steal our data but will simultaneously pull stunts like this. This digital age is hell on earth and I hate what we have become

25. I guess there would be an exemption for business accounts?

26. I’m not Apples biggest fan but come on.. you can’t give anybody this access and the trust we have for governments.. definitely not them! Data just would no longer be safe.. this is basics and UK government needs somebody to tell them straight to leave it.

27. The Home Office and British Government are a fucking laughing stock of the world.

28. Two tier Keir having a tug, doesn’t surprise me (he’s a W)

29. I wonder how far the government is going to push people.

30. It’s weird seeing the difference in comment sections here vs the ai face and emotion recognition software in CCTV. There the comments were all “good for safety, let’s give it a chance, crime is too high” etc. I am sure many people here don’t like that either, but there were at least some redditors arguing FOR ai facial recognition.
    People are anti-nanny state and privacy infringement until it helps them with something they are angry about. Uk reddit when id checks are wanted for porn? Boo, angry. Uk reddit when an armed police force has access to software which can read your emotions, detect your identity and then predict when you’re about to do something? Debatable. Neither of these things are good.
    I personally think we should be getting rid of a lot of our cctv camera, that ring doorbells shouldn’t be as popular as they are, that we have become our own surveillance state runners by filming every thing. We all seem okay with our data being harvested so each time they’re gonna move the goal posts further. None of it is okay.
    If this is about CSAM. The police have metadata on thousands of images. That could be used for a detection service built in to encrypted messaging servers, phone storage etc. you wouldn’t have to back door it. Listened to a radio show about this a while back and not sure if that’s been an option?

31. In other words, they already have backdoors in all the other services.

32. Why does Labour always try to go this authoritarian route? Spending too much time trying to impose on our lives, but if someone breaks into your house don’t expect the police to get involved!

33. Wow, who would have guessed, the same online safety act they said wouldn’t kill encryption has killed encryption.

34. Imagine if North Korea or China gave this order – why should the UK not likewise be told to do one?

35. I remember the investigatory powers act. It was sold as something what would be used rarely only for the most serious offenders, protecting us from terrorists and child molesters etc. It ended up being used to investigate who was feeding pigeons, who wasn’t cleaning up after their dog, and tracking a woman who lied about her address so she could take her kids to a better school.

36. yeah like that,ll work, tell uk to fuck off, cheeky bastards!

37. “But the government notice does not mean the authorities are suddenly going to start combing through everybody’s data”.

    I’m afraid it does.

    They’ll be after Reform voters, Just Stop Oil members, people who they designate as “far right because they mentioned a small boat on Facebook. This is a very steep, very slippery slope.

    They’ll come for you all when they want to. Mark my words. In the meantime, that Backdoor will be exploited by criminals in next to no time.

    Apple should just pull out of the UK. See how many votes that loses.

38. Yay. Who wants to move out of the UK?
    I hear China is nice this time of the year.

39. Not to be this guy but the CIA in America was given access to this data years ago

40. It’s funny that…you would have thought access to Ministers deleted WhatsApp messages would have been requested first…

41. This is excellent news!

    At last someone will leak the contents of MP’s accounts!

    What’s not to love about that?

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