Apparently, the United Kingdom has ordered Apple to give the country unprecedented broad access to encrypted user data that is stored in Apple’s data cloud. This is according to a report out of the Washington Post. This is a result of the “technical capability notice” that the UK government has, and requires “blanket access rather than merely assistance to access a specific account”.
Britain is able to issue these notices under its Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. This combined various existing powers on intercepting and obtaining communications, under one law. Security officials have long said that data encryption makes it much harder to catch criminals, however, tech companies like Apple, have long protected their users’ right to privacy. And only provide access when it is absolutely necessary. Back in 2016, Apple successfully fought a US order to unlock an encrypted iPhone that belonged to a shooter in a deadly massacre in California.
It’s not uncommon to see tech companies asked by the government for access to a criminal’s phone and data. However, this sweeping demand by Britain has no known precedent in major democracies.
Apple offers Advanced Data Protection, making it much harder to access this data
A feature that Apple debuted last year, called Advanced Data Protection, is far more protective and tougher to crack than simple two-factor authentication. In fact, even Apple doesn’t have access to the data stored on its cloud, with Advanced Data Protection.
This feature is used to add end-to-end encryption to device backups, messages backups, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders and more. And this data can be decrypted only on your trusted devices. Making it much harder for your data to be accessed, even in a data breach.
The UK was working on changes to this 2016 law last year, and said that it needed to keep pace with evolving technologies and cyber threats. To which, Apple told Parliament that it would never build a “back door” into its products. This could force Apple to remove this feature from the United Kingdom.
