Gabbard Says UK Scraps Demand for Apple to Give Backdoor Access to Data

Britain abandoned its demand that Apple provide so-called backdoor access to any encrypted user data stored in the cloud, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Monday.

Gabbard indicated London and Washington had resolved their high-stakes dispute over electronic privacy, writing on X that she and President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance spent the “past few months” working with the U.K. government.

“As a result, the UK 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,” she said.

The dispute surfaced at the start of the year with a news report that British security officials had issued the U.S. tech giant with a secret order requiring the creation of backdoor access to view fully encrypted material.

Apple challenged the order, which raised ...