UK may be seeking to pull back from Apple encryption row with US

The government may be seeking to pull back from a diplomatic row with the US over UK demands to require Apple to give the UK access to secure data stored by Apple users.

UK government officials have told the Financial Times that pressure from senior US officials, including the vice president, JD Vance, could force the UK to retreat from the plan.

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, issued a notice against Apple under the Investigatory Powers Act in January, requiring the company to provide law enforcement with the capability to access encrypted data stored by Apple users on Apple’s iCloud service.

The move has attracted opposition from both Democratic and Republican law makers in the US, and has been criticised by president Trump and JD Vance, who object to the UK interfering with US technology companies.

Two government officials, believed to be from the Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), told the Financial Times that the UK’s decision to force Apple to break its end-to-end encryption could disrupt technology agreements with the US.

“One of the challenges for the tech partnerships we’re working on is the encryption issue,” one official said. “It is a big red line in the US: they don’t want us messing with their tech companies.”

“This is something that the vice-president is very annoyed about and which needs to be resolved,” the official added. “The Home Office is basically going to have to back down.”

A second official said that the Home Office had “its back against the wall” and that the problem was of the “Home Office’s own making”.

The government maintains that it needs access to Apple customers’ secure files in order for law enforcement to investigate terrorism and child sexual abuse.

The government order, known as a Technical Capability Notice, however led Apple to withdraw its secure Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service from UK customers.

The company is now challenging the lawfulness of the Home Office’s order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

Computer Weekly previously reported that WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging service owned by Meta, has agreed to provide legal submissions in support of Apple.

Civil Society groups, Amnesty and Privacy International have filed a separate claim to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal challenging the Home Office.

A third senior British official told the Financial Times that  the UK government was reluctant to push “anything that looks to the US vice-president like a free-speech issue”.

The US vice president, JD Vance, attacked Europe and the UK in February for opposing free speech on social media and more generally in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he said.

The US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a letter published in the same month that she shared concerns raised by Congress over reports that the UK has issued an order against Apple that could “undermine Americans’ privacy and civil liberties”.

President Donald Trump confirmed in an interview with The Spectator that he had raised the Apple TCN with prime minister Keir Starmer during his visit to Washington, comparing the UK’s actions to the conduct of China.

“We actually told him (Starmer) … that’s incredible. That’s something, you know, that you hear about with China,” he said.

Ben Collier, Chair of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, a think tank for internet policy which today published a report on the Apple affair, said that it was not surprising that the Home Office’s attempt to compel Apple to undermine the security of its products is facing resistance from the US.

“Tactics like issuing encryption removal orders to tech companies will only make every iPhone user in the UK less secure. As the UK government’s own guidance for companies and the public makes clear, strong encryption is at the heart of keeping the services we all use safe and secure. There is no way to undermine encryption which doesn’t leave huge weaknesses that criminals and hostile state actors can exploit,” he said.

“Law enforcement have much more effective tactics – ones which don’t involve undermining our shared security – to investigate and disrupt serious criminal activity where encryption is being used. The government would be sensible to step back and retract this notice, and instead focus on the important work of renewing the UK’s basic infrastructure, digital security, and privacy protections,” he added.