Aug. 19 (UPI) — Britain backed down on demand for “backdoor” access to Apple users’ data, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said.
Gabbard wrote in a post on X that the British government agreed to drop the request for access to Apple’s encrypted data after discussions between the new nations.
“Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the U.K., alongside [President Doanld Trump] and [Vice President JD Vance], to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” Gabbad wrote. “As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a ‘back door’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.”
In February, Apple pulled its Advanced Data Protection end-to-end iCloud encryption from British customers’ devices after the government requested access to the data. Following the events of the British government pressuring Apple to build a “backdoor” to allow government authorities to access user iCloud data.
It was not immediately clear whether Apple would restore access to British users following the agreement.
Apple cannot view the data of its customers who have activated its advanced data protection.
“We have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services, and we never will,” the company said.