Ten days ago, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the UK government had agreed to withdraw its demand for Apple to offer a “back door” for its encryption data. However, a new document reveals that the UK government wanted access to even basic iCloud data. The Financial Times reported that although the U.S. has claimed that it has been able to convince the British government otherwise, the original request for Apple users’ data was more serious than first thought.
According to a legal filing seen by the publication, the UK government wanted access to users’ encrypted data but also Apple’s standard iCloud service. This court document was released by an independent judicial body handling complaints regarding UK security.
While Apple has threatened to shut down iCloud services in the region, which would mean no FaceTime or iMessage capabilities, the company already removed iCloud’s optional extra layer of encryption, the Advanced Data Protection feature, from UK customers in February.
The UK government hasn’t commented on iCloud user data request, and Apple can’t
According to the Financial Times, Apple received a notice from the UK Home Office months ago, preventing the company from discussing the data request publicly. However, the UK has not confirmed or denied the existence of this order.
The request sent to Apple shows that the government wasn’t tackling only the Advanced Data Protection feature, but even the standard iCloud service. The wording included “obligations to provide and maintain a capability to disclose categories of data stored within a cloud-based backup service” which the Financial Times speculated might mean that the UK government was seeking messages or passwords that were backed up in the cloud.
According to the report, critics have called this law a “snooper’s charter.” A UK government spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the matter and Apple has also chosen to decline to comment on this story.