Britian

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.

May 8 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday morning that the United States is set to sign a trade deal with Britian.

“The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come,” Trump said Thursday in a post to his Truth Social account. “Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our first announcement.”

Trump closed the post with a notification that “Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow.”

The White House is slated to hold a press conference at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday from the Oval Office to officially proclaim the deal, which would be the first trade deal the United States has made since Trump announced a slew of tariffs against most countries around the globe.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will also declare the deal from an unannounced location at around the same time Thursday.

Britain was not hit with the higher levies some other countries received when Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April but was struck with the minimum global 10% duty. Britain already runs a trade deficit with the United States.