Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says change upholds privacy of US users.<\/p>\n
Apple will no longer be forced to provide the United Kingdom\u2019s government with access to American citizens\u2019 encrypted data, Washington\u2019s spy chief has said, signalling the end of a months-long transatlantic privacy row.<\/p>\n
Tulsi Gabbard, the United States\u2019 director of national intelligence, said on Monday that London agreed to drop its requirement for Apple to provide a \u201cback door\u201d that would have allowed access to the protected data of US users and \u201cencroached on our civil liberties\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gabbard said the reversal was the result of months of engagement with the UK to \u201censure Americans\u2019 private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected\u201d.<\/p>\n
The UK government said it does not comment on operational matters, but that London and Washington have longstanding joint security and intelligence arrangements that include safeguards to protect privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to build on those arrangements, and we will also continue to maintain a strong security framework to ensure that we can continue to pursue terrorists and serious criminals operating in the UK,\u201d a government spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s climbdown on encryption comes after Apple in February announced it could no longer offer advanced data protection, its highest-level security feature, in the country.<\/p>\n
While Apple did not provide a reason for the change at the time, the announcement came after The Washington Post reported that UK security officials had secretly ordered the California-based tech giant to provide blanket access to cloud data belonging to users around the world.<\/p>\n
Under the UK\u2019s Investigatory Powers Act, authorities may compel companies to remove encryption under what is known as a \u201ctechnical capability notice\u201d.<\/p>\n
Firms that receive a notice are legally bound to secrecy about the order unless otherwise granted permission by the government.<\/p>\n
Like other tech giants, Apple has marketed its use of end-to-end encryption as proof of its steadfast commitment to the privacy of its users.<\/p>\n
End-to-end encryption scrambles data so it cannot be read by third parties, including law enforcement and tech companies themselves.<\/p>\n
Governments around the world have made numerous attempts to undermine or bypass encryption, arguing that it shields serious criminals from scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Privacy experts and civil liberties advocates have condemned efforts to weaken the technology, arguing that they treat innocent people as potential criminals and put the privacy and security of all users at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says change upholds privacy of US users. Apple will no longer be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,1700,393,4884,12,1144,6512,712,53,16,15,49,286,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-356337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-privacy","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-us-canada","22":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115054498562339713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}