Apple to take legal action against British Government over backdoor request

Date:
Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:02:07 +0000

Description:
The British government faces legal action over privacy row with tech giant Apple.

FULL STORY ======================================================================
- Apple is now reportedly taking the British Government to court
- Move comes after the UK Government reportedly asked Apple to build an encryption key
- Apple refused, and disabled its encryption service for UK users

The UK Government's privacy row with Apple over an alleged backdoor request continues, with reports claiming the company appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent court that can investigate claims made
against the Security Service.

The UK Government had reportedly asked Apple to build a master key for law enforcement agencies in its end-to-end encryption (E2EE) service, Advanced
Data Protection (ADP) - however Apple refused, and pulled ADP altogether.

This is believed to be the first legal challenge to any provisions in the
2016 Investigatory Powers Act allowing the break of encryptions. The tribunal will look into the legality of the UK governments request, and whether or not it can be overruled.

Privacy concerns

The request was condemned by both privacy groups and also came as a surprise
to the American government , who called the request a clear and egregious violation of Americans privacy and civil liberties, after Director of
National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard shared grave concern over the
implications of the request.

The case could be heard this month, but as of yet, it's not clear if there
will be any public disclosure of the hearing - and its likely the UK
Government will argue that the case be restricted due to national security concerns.

The E2EE, built by Apple, means the photos, messages, and other data of the users who chose to enable the service is protected, and cannot be accessed by anyone - even Apple.

Some campaigners have previously argued in favor of the backdoor for the UK Government, so that law enforcement agencies have access to potentially
harmful materials or evidence of abuse material - but many are concerned that the creation of a master key brings a risk of that key falling into the wrong hands.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/apple-to-take-legal-action-against-brit ish-government-over-backdoor-request

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