Trump admin says it convinced UK to drop demand for Apple backdoor

The UK has dropped its demand that Apple create a backdoor for government security officials to access encrypted data, according to US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard wrote in a post on X last night that she has "been working closely with our partners in the UK... to ensure Americans' private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected. 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."

Reports surfaced in February that the UK served Apple with a secret order, known as a Technical Capability Notice, under its Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) or so-called "Snoopers' Charter." Apple appealed the order and refused to break its end-to-end encryption, opting instead to remove iCloud's Advanced Data ...