US lawmakers want Britain to drop its demand for a backdoor into iOS, and say that if they don’t, America should cut down intelligence sharing with the country.
Both Republican and Democrat committee members claim that Britain’s demand for Apple to give it full access to user data imperils Americans. Even if other bad actors were somehow unable to use the backdoor, the UK government would be able to read previously encrypted data from any user, including ones in the US.
According to The Washington Post, bipartisan members of congressional oversight committees have written to Tulsi Gabbard, the new National Intelligence Director about the issue. Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Andy Biggs, a Republican on the House Judiciary committee, have asked her to demand that the UK rescinds its order.
“If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers undermining the security of Americans’ data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products.”
“The US government must not permit what is effectively a foreign cyberattack waged through political means,” they said. “If the UK does not immediately reverse this dangerous effort, we urge you to reevaluate US-UK cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as US intelligence sharing with the UK.”
The UK has neither confirmed nor denied that it has made this demand of Apple — and it doesn’t have to. Under British law, the UK government is allowed to compel companies to provide what’s called technical cooperation, and those firms may not disclose that they have even been asked.
More, Apple can appeal the order — and doubtlessly is already doing so — but in theory it still has to implement the demand immediately. There is no delaying a response while an appeal is underway, and Apple would also be legally prohibited from even telling UK users what has happened.
Consequently, Apple has not commented on the UK demand since it was made. But the demand followed a 2024 Parliamentary debate which gave the UK this authority, and Apple did object at the time.
“There is no reason why the UK should have the authority to decide for citizens of the world whether they can avail themselves of the proven security benefits that flow from end-to-end encryption,” Apple said in a statement in 2024.
While the current UK government is refusing to comment, a former chief executive of the country’s own National Cyber Security Center has spoken out against the order.
“Most experts in the democratic world agree that what the UK is proposing would weaken digital security for everyone,” said Ciaran Martin, “not just in the UK, but worldwide.”
Director Gabbard has yet to publicly respond to the lawmakers’ letter. However, those lawmakers noted that she did agree during her confirmation hearing that such backdoors “can undermine Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and civil liberties.”
It’s common in the UK for whichever government is in power to speak of what’s called its “special relationship” with the US. That term doesn’t tend to get used in US, but America did previously see the UK as an ally in the European Union.
The UK is no longer in the European Union. It’s not known if Brexit affected the EU’s sharing of intelligence data with the UK, but the US stopping or cutting down sharing is a serious threat.
It could mean that the land of James Bond would have intentionally chosen to have its intelligence services crippled. Twice.
