By [1]David DiMolfetta

  | February 13, 2025 03:40 PM ET

The court order issued by the United Kingdom centers on the UK’s 2016
Investigatory Powers Act, which was reportedly invoked to demand Apple
provide a backdoor into users’ encrypted iCloud backups.

    * [2]Encryption
    * [3]Privacy
    * [4]ODNI
    * [5]Apple

  A bipartisan, bicameral pair of lawmakers urged [6]newly confirmed
  Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to reevaluate U.S.
  cybersecurity and intelligence-sharing relations with the United
  Kingdom in response to a report revealing that the UK secretly ordered
  Apple to build a backdoor into encrypted iCloud backups.

  The Feb. 7 [7]report from the Washington Post says that the order
  issued last month demands UK law enforcement and intelligence
  operatives be granted worldwide, unfettered access to users’ protected
  cloud data. Apple customers residing in the United States would be cast
  into that dragnet.

  Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked Gabbard in
  the [8]Thursday missive if the Trump administration was made aware of
  the order by stakeholders and whether the White House has understanding
  of the CLOUD Act, which lets U.S. law enforcement get data stored by
  American tech companies, even if that data is on servers outside the
  U.S., by using warrants or subpoenas.

  “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,” they wrote in their letter to Gabbard.

  Nextgov/FCW has reached out to but did not receive comment from the
  Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as well as the British
  Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the UK Home Office, which manages the
  nation’s governance over security issues.

  Under the UK’s 2016 Investigatory Powers Act — known colloquially as
  the Snooper’s Charter — Apple received the order to provide cloud data
  without any judicial review. High-ranking Biden administration
  officials had been monitoring the dispute since the UK initially hinted
  at requiring access, a move that Apple opposed, the Post reported.

  The consumer electronics giant’s Advanced Data Protection feature,
  released in 2022, lets users lock their iCloud data, blocking even
  Apple from accessing it. The capability is available in several
  countries and throws a wrench into law enforcement efforts to easily
  obtain that data via standard warrants.

  The overseas order escalates the global privacy vs. security debate.
  The UK has been a longtime U.S. ally, and both nations have benefited
  greatly from decades of intelligence-sharing agreements that involve
  counterterrorism operations, cyber threat intelligence, signals
  intelligence collaboration and law enforcement cooperation on
  transnational crime and espionage.

  Gabbard has historically been a longtime privacy hawk who, in the past,
  publicly called for the dismantling of a key U.S. surveillance
  authority that allows intelligence operatives to target foreigners
  abroad without a warrant for use in foreign intelligence missions.

  The ordinance, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
  Act, is controversial because law enforcement analysts are permitted to
  collect and query both sides of a conversation, even when one side
  involves a U.S. person speaking to a foreign target. Privacy advocates
  argue that the statue, as it currently stands, creates an end-run
  around the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and
  seizures.

  Gabbard has since reversed her position on 702, deeming it vital to
  national security. But notably, in her confirmation hearing, she said
  she supports a warrant requirement for the intelligence community to
  query data on U.S. persons — a provision largely backed by civil
  liberties groups.

  In her confirmation hearing to be DNI, Gabbard also said backdoors
  “lead down a dangerous path that can undermine Americans’ Fourth
  Amendment rights and civil liberties.” And in [9]written responses to
  the Senate Intelligence Committee, she said mandating encryption bypass
  mechanisms “undermines user security, privacy and trust and poses
  significant risks of exploitation by malicious actors.”

References

  1. https://www.nextgov.com/voices/david-dimolfetta/25968/?oref=ng-post-author?oref=rf-post-author
  2. https://www.nextgov.com/topic/encryption/?oref=ng-article-topics
  3. https://www.nextgov.com/topic/privacy/?oref=ng-article-topics
  4. https://www.nextgov.com/topic/odni/?oref=ng-article-topics
  5. https://www.nextgov.com/topic/apple/?oref=ng-article-topics
  6. https://www.nextgov.com/people/2025/02/senate-confirms-tulsi-gabbard-trumps-intelligence-chief/402953/
  7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/07/apple-encryption-backdoor-uk/
  8. https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wyden-biggs-letter-to-dni-re-uk-backdoors.pdf
  9. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/aphq-tgabbard-013025.pdf

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