Here’s a spooky feeling. The iPhone in your hand likely has lots of encrypted data in encrypted iCloud backups, but if an order by the British government is implemented, security services will be able to see it—no matter which country you’re in. Here’s what’s going on and most importantly whether Apple will do it.
Apple could be forced to open up iPhone data.
“Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud,” the Washington Post reports. That applies to what’s on iCloud, so not just iPhones, but iPad and Mac uploaded data, too.
The fact that the order came from the British government doesn’t protect users’ data elsewhere as it requires “blanket capability to viewfully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account, and has no known precedent in major democracies,” the report goes on.
So, will Apple go along with it?
Apple is almost certain to refuse, given it has consistently praised privacy as a fundamental human right and has said no to demands from the FBI in the past.
In 2023, the U.K. government demanded access to iMessages and FaceTime calls, and at the time, Apple said that it would rather withdraw such services rather than go along with it.
It’s likely that Apple, which has not commented, would simply stop offering encrypted storage in the U.K., though that might not be enough to satisfy the British government. The law used to facilitate the order is the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. Critics refer to this as the Snoopers’ Charter.
If the U.K. government continues to demand this and Apple takes encrypted data services away from British iPhone users, leaving those users with less security than they have now. And the nature of the encryption used is that
What may happen is that the U.K. government will quietly back down and use more conventional legal mechanisms when seeking data, such as court orders.
Apple has yet to comment: more as we have it.
