The UK Government has dropped its demand for Apple to access users\u2019 data amid a privacy and encryption row, according to the US director of national intelligence.<\/p>\n
Tulsi Gabbard posted on X that the UK has agreed to end the request for the US tech giant after working alongside American president Donald Trump, vice president JD Vance and British counterparts \u201cover the past few months\u201d.<\/p>\n
She posted: \u201cAs a result, the UK 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<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, it was reported the Government had issued a notice under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, asking Apple for the ability to access data from Apple users.<\/p>\n
This was said to include encrypted data protected by the tech giant\u2019s advanced data protection (ADP) tool, an opt-in tool within Apple\u2019s iCloud service which only an account holder can access, and is currently out of the reach of even Apple.<\/p>\n
The iPhone-maker subsequently said it was withdrawing the tool from the UK and brought legal action against the Home Office.<\/p>\n
Reacting to Ms Gabbard\u2019s statement, Conservative MP David Davis said: \u201cThe Government\u2019s decision to drop its demands for a backdoor to Apple\u2019s encryption are to be welcomed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a backdoor would only serve to weaken the protection given by encryption to all of us from malicious actors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s approach was widely criticised by online privacy campaigners and experts when reports of the request first appeared.<\/p>\n
Story Continues <\/p>\n
However, some online safety charities, as well as police and security services around the world, have long warned of the dangers of end-to-end encrypted services, arguing that they allow offenders such as terrorists and child abusers to hide more easily.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a UK Government spokesperson said: \u201cWe do not comment on operational matters, including confirming or denying the existence of such notices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have long had joint security and intelligence arrangements with the US to tackle the most serious threats such as terrorism and child sexual abuse, including the role played by fast-moving technology in enabling those threats.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added the agreements have \u201clong contained\u201d safeguards to protect privacy and sovereignty, including for UK and US citizens.<\/p>\n
Apple has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK Government has dropped its demand for Apple to access users\u2019 data amid a privacy and encryption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[2573,1662,748,125738,32,3450,393,4884,1144,6512,125739,712,78523,16,10788,15,14013,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-356839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-american-president","11":"tag-apple","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-david-davis","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-encryption","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-privacy","20":"tag-private-data","21":"tag-scotland","22":"tag-tulsi-gabbard","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-uk-government","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-vice-president-jd-vance","27":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115055556336451944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356839","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=356839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}