US lawmakers urge secretive British court to open up about Apple case
Democrat Ron Wyden and Republican Warren Davidson tell investigatory powers tribunal that secrecy over encrypted data case is ‘needlessly’ straining US-UK relations A bipartisan pair of American politicians is telling Britain’s most secretive court to stop hiding its handling of Apple’s legal fight against a government demand to break into its customers’ encrypted data, warning that Whitehall’s…
Two American politicians, Democrat Ron Wyden and Republican Warren Davidson, have written to Britain's secretive Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) urging it to disclose more details about the government's legal dispute with Apple over encrypted data. The senators claim the IPT's insistence on secrecy is "needlessly" straining US-UK relations.
The controversy began in January 2025 when the Home Office issued Apple a technical capability notice under the Investigatory Powers Act, requiring the tech giant to help law enforcement access customers' encrypted iCloud backups worldwide. Apple responded by disabling the Advanced Data Protection encryption feature for UK users the following month.
The IPT later dismissed Apple's challenge to the order after the Home Office withdrew the original notice and issued a narrower one targeting only British users' data. In August, Apple filed a fresh complaint at the tribunal challenging the government's power to issue such notices. The new letter from Wyden and Davidson, sent ahead of being submitted to the IPT, accuses the Home Office of attempting to override US legislative authority by using a foreign secrecy order to limit congressional inquiry into the matter.
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