A big battle over consumer privacy could be brewing, with UK officials ordering Apple to give them broad access to all encrypted cloud data added by users.
Big tech companies have largely kept governments at bay when it comes to accessing user data. Apple in particular has been stern when it comes to protecting user privacy, pushing back on even the most reasonable requests from government officials to the sake of public safety.
This is an entirely different story, though, with the UK asking for unprecedented access to all encrypted data from Apple, which could change how governments and big tech firms interact moving forward.
UK Serves Apple With ‘Technical Capability Notice’
According to a report from the Washington Post, the UK office of the Home Secretary has sent Apple a “technical capacity notice,” demanding that the company give them access to all content from Apple users worldwide that has been added to the cloud.
The UK officials cited the UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which does allow law enforcement to insist on assistance from companies when it comes to collecting evidence for a case. However, this request is not for a specific set of encrypted data and instead asks for wide-reaching access across the company’s system.
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In fact, as the Washington Post points out, this request “has no known precedent in major democracies.”
Will Apple Comply?
Given this massive request from UK officials, does Apple plan on complying with the request to give the country broad access to encrypted data from its millions of users? Probably not.
The anonymous sources that provided the Washington Post with all this information also noted that, rather than comply, Apple will likely just stop offering encrypted storage in the UK.
Still, the request from UK officials is asking for access to encrypted data worldwide, so this won’t necessarily abate the agency from hounding Apple for access. It could, however, encourage them to back off a bit, as the impacts on UK citizens will be nothing if not noticeable.
UK Officials vs Big Tech Privacy
This isn’t the first instance of UK officials pushing back hard against the privacy commitments of the tech industry.
Enforcement of the Online Safety Act of 2023, for example, has garnered substantial backlash from tech companies like WhatsApp and Signal, as it inherently undermines the end-to-end encryption services provided by the messaging apps in question.
UK official do seem to be at least somewhat noble in their pursuits, seeking out this kind of information in order to keep children safe from sexual abuse. Still, giving governments access to encrypted data unilaterally is a slippery slope, and given what’s happening in the US with the government’s handling of sensitive data, it’s safe to say a bit of privacy would be welcomed in 2025.
