Apple has filed a legal complaint with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, challenging the UK government's demand to create a "back door" into its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) iCloud encryption, according to the Financial Times (£). The legal challenge, considered the first of its kind under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), aims to overturn the government's "technical capability notice" (TCN) issued to the company in January.
The tribunal, an independent judicial body, will assess the legality of the TCN and has the authority to quash it. The case, potentially heard this month, will likely involve national security restrictions, limiting public disclosure.
The article claims Apple has been resisting the UK's demand since introducing ADP in December 2022. The company filed its legal complaint at the same time as it withdrew the ADP service from UK users, choosing to remove the feature rather than comply with the TCN. Despite this withdrawal, the UK government maintains that Apple has not complied with the order, which extends to data of non-UK individuals.
The development follows a recent interview with The Spectator (£), in which US President Donald Trump criticised the UK's request for Apple to provide secret access to its ADP, likening the demand to practices associated with China.
Reporting on the interview, the Financial Times (£) reveals that the US President expressed strong opposition to the UK's requirements during his meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last week, during which he explained, "You can't do this. . . that's incredible. That's something, you know, that you hear about with China."
A spokesperson for Downing Street refrained from commenting on the Apple situation but emphasised the importance of the close intelligence partnership with the United States.
In related news, Techradar reports that Signal President Meredith Whittaker reaffirmed her company's position on compromising encrypted communications.
During a panel discussion at the RightsCon 25 conference, Whittaker said: "We will not walk back, adulterate, or otherwise perturb the robust privacy and security guarantees that people depend on." She went on to add: "Whether that perturbation or backdoor is called client-side scanning or the stripping of the encryption protections from one or another features similar to what Apple was pushed into doing in the UK."
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A version of the main article by Reuters is available without subscription
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