Apple Ordered by UK to Create Global iCloud Encryption Backdoor
February 7th, 2025Via: MacRumors:
The British government has secretly demanded that Apple give it blanket access to all encrypted user content uploaded to the cloud, reports The Washington Post.
The undisclosed order is said to have been issued last month, and requires that Apple creates a back door that allows UK security officials unencumbered access to encrypted user data worldwide – an unprecedented demand not before seen in any other democratic country.
The spying order came by way of a “technical capability notice,” a document sent to Apple by the Home Secretary, ordering it to provide access under the sweeping UK Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) of 2016. Critics have labeled the legislation the “Snooper’s Charter,” as it authorizes law enforcement to compel assistance from companies when needed to collect evidence.
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the revelation, though the law actually makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government even made such a demand.
It’s a criminal offense to make this demand.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things…”
Corporations are persons under US law, so the Fourth Amendment applies to them as well as us. But our right to privacy can be and has been erased by govt action, both foreign and domestic.
The surveillance-sharing network is global and unavoidable. We have to think up more and better ways to defeat it.