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Apple pulls end-to-end encryption in Britain

Apple has agreed to remove its highest level data-security tool from British customers, and will accede to government demands to access user data.

Apple cannot itself currently access user data such as photos and documents, through its embedded end-to-end encryption technology, a process using a security tool known as Advanced Data Protection (ADP).

Encrypted-data request

Earlier this month, British authorities asked to be able to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide in its cloud service. Apple has consistently opposed creating a ‘backdoor’ in its encryption service, to protect users against bad actors also gaining access.

Despite not commenting earlier, Apple has now decided it will no longer be possible to activate ADP in Britain.

Customer data stored on iCloud won’t be encrypted, making it all accessible by Apple and shareable with law-enforcement authorities, if they have a warrant.

‘Gravely disappointed’

In a statement, Apple said it was “gravely disappointed” at the development.

“As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products, and we never will,” it said.

The Advanced Data Protection service was withdrawn for new users today at 3pm (21 February). Existing users’ access to ADP will be disabled at a later date.

‘An act of self-harm’

Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber-security expert at Surrey University, commented to BBC News that it was a “very disappointing development” that amounted to “an act of self-harm” by the government.

“All the British Government has achieved is to weaken online security and privacy for British-based users”, he told the BBC.

It was naïve of the British government to think they could tell a US technology company what to do globally, he added.

‘Unprecedented attack’

The request earlier this month was served by the Home Office under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which compels firms to provide information to law-enforcement agencies.

Privacy campaigners said it was an “unprecedented attack” on individuals’ data.

In its statement, Apple said: “Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end-encryption is more urgent than ever before.”

The political backdrop is the growing resistance in the US against regulation from elsewhere of its tech sector.

In a speech at the AI Action Summit in Paris at the beginning of February, US Vice-President JD Vance made it clear that the US was increasingly concerned about the matter.

“The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on US tech companies with international footprints,” the vice-president said.