Apple challenges UK government’s latest demand for iCloud backdoor: report
Apple has appealed a new legal demand by the U.K. government, which critics say could threaten the privacy rights of users all over the world.
Apple is challenging another legal demand from the U.K. government to access the encrypted data of its users within the country, according to the Financial Times. The company filed a complaint with the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a court that handles cases involving government surveillance, after the government issued a secret "technical capability notice" last year.
This notice is a government legal order demanding access to users' data, even when it is encrypted. Critics argue that such demands are akin to requesting a backdoor into Apple's cloud backups with Advanced Data Protection (ADP) enabled, rendering the data end-to-end encrypted and inaccessible to anyone except the customer, including Apple.
This latest challenge follows a similar dispute between Apple and the UK government a year ago. In early 2025, London had issued a secret order to Apple requesting access to users' encrypted iCloud backups, which was later withdrawn after intervention from the Trump administration. Subsequently, in October, the UK issued another order, and Apple is now contesting this latest demand. Apple has not responded to inquiries from TechCrunch.
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