Apple has filed a complaint in the UK to avoid weakening iCloud’s security.
The complaint was filed with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which investigates complaints against British security services. The Financial Times reports that it must investigate whether the UK’s request to Apple is legal and if it can be scrapped.
Apple received a request from the UK in January to bypass an additional layer of protection called Advanced Data Protection, or ADP. That layer has been in place since December 2022, but Apple stopped offering it in the UK shortly after.
The complaint was filed about the same time, but the news is only now coming out. Apple has made little formal comment on the case, only confirming that iCloud ADP is no longer offered in the UK.
Backdoor for everyone
There has also been little substantive comment from the British government. According to the Financial Times, British Security Minister Dan Jarvis said last month in the British House of Commons that it should not be a choice between security and privacy and that the laws are strong enough to guarantee that privacy is safeguarded and that data is only collected exceptionally and when necessary.
The UK government’s request is intended to make it easier for security services to access citizens’ conversations or online storage. However, building a technical loophole to give service access could provide the UK with security services access to all iCloud accounts, not just those in the UK.
At the same time, experts have warned for years that cybercriminals, spies or other malicious players can also exploit a backdoor in encryption for security services.
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