The legal challenge Apple filed with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) appealing the UK government's demand to create a "back door" into its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) iCloud encryption will be held in the High Court behind closed doors.
The IPT published a notification of a closed-door hearing before its president, Lord Rabinder Singh, on the afternoon of 14 March.
The tribunal's listing does not mention Apple or the government and has not confirmed whether they are the parties involved in the case. The hearing is being held in secret because it relates to security services. However, given the case is a matter of public interest and the appeal is public knowledge, the Open Rights Group has written an open letter to Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for the Home Department and launched a petition demanding the Home Office stop putting our security at risk by demanding a backdoor into Apple's encrypted services.
In related news, Privacy International, Liberty and two other claimants filed two additional complaints before the IPT—the first seeking for the hearing to be held in public, while the second disputes the lawfulness, necessity and secrecy of the legal regime underpinning Technical Capability Notices in general.
In a statement, Liberty director Akiko Hart said it would be an "entirely reckless and unprecedented move from the UK Government to open up a back door to this data, and one that will have global consequences... These plans have been universally criticised, from marginalised communities to tech firms to the US Government and beyond. We need concrete guarantees from the UK Government that they won't proceed with these plans."
Separately, the Financial Times (£) revealed that five US lawmakers have written to the IPT demanding that it "remove the cloak of secrecy related to notices given to American technology companies by the UK, which infringes on free speech and privacy."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg (£) reports that UK and US officials held private talks in an attempt to resolve concerns that the UK is attempting to force Apple to build a backdoor into the encrypted data of American citizens. The talks, initiated by the UK, were intended to correct the misleading narrative that they were seeking wide-ranging powers to access people's personal data. Instead, they argue the UK would only request data concerning investigations into serious crimes, such as terrorism and child sexual abuse.
Getting back to today's hearing, comments given to an article in The Guardian by Ross McKenzie, a partner at Addleshaw Goddard, suggest that in order for Apple to succeed in its appeal, it "will need to persuade the high court that the request is not proportionate, taking into account their users' rights to privacy, and likely impact on overall security. This is a significant test for the battle between law enforcement and technology."
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