The UK has agreed to remove the “backdoor” mandate for Apple, according to US spy chief Gabbard
The United Kingdom has agreed to revoke its contentious “backdoor” order against Apple, according to US spy head Tulsi Gabbard.
US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard announced Monday that the UK had consented to rescind its order that Apple develop a “backdoor” that would have provided access to the encrypted data of US individuals.
In her statement on X, Gabbard said she had spent months negotiating the deal with the British government, with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Trump and other European leaders in Washington to talk about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Apple and the UK government did not immediately respond to inquiries on Gabbard’s remarks.
The enforcement of the UK’s ruling might be abused by authoritarian regimes and cybercriminals, according to earlier concerns expressed by US senators. Apple contested the mandate in the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, claiming that it would never include such access into its encrypted services or devices.
In February, after the UK order, Apple removed the Advanced Data Protection function for UK consumers. Users of Macs, iPhones, and other Apple devices can utilize this feature to make sure that their cloud-stored data is only accessible by them and not by Apple.
The UK’s demand that Apple provide a backdoor that would have allowed the British government access to backups in Apple’s encrypted cloud services raised questions earlier this year about whether the UK had broken a bilateral agreement.
The CLOUD Act prohibits any nation from requesting the data of the other’s nationals, and Gabbard wrote to US senators on February 25 that the US was investigating whether the UK had violated this law.
Creating a government backdoor might eventually be found and used by hackers, cybersecurity experts cautioned. After the US government tried to force the corporation to unlock an iPhone that belonged to a suspected extremist in 2016, Apple has encountered similar regulatory problems regarding encryption.
