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Author Name: Alec Muffett
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U.K. demand for a back door to Apple data threatens Americans, lawmakers say

2025-02-13 00:00:00

Members of key congressional oversight committees wrote to the United States’ new top intelligence official Thursday to warn that a British order demanding government access to Apple users’ encrypted data imperils Americans. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to just-sworn-in National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and asked her to demand that the United Kingdom retract its order.

If the top U.S. ally does not back off, they said, Gabbard should consider limiting the deep intelligence sharing and cooperation on cybersecurity between the countries. A copy of the letter was reviewed by The Washington Post.

The Post first reported the existence of the confidential British order last week. It directs Apple to create a back door into its Advanced Data Protection offering, which allows users to fully encrypt data from iPhones and Mac computers when putting it in Apple’s iCloud storage. Apple cannot retrieve such content even when served with a court order, frustrating authorities looking for evidence of terrorism, child abuse and other serious crimes.

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The order was issued under the Investigatory Powers Act, which allows the British Home Office to require technical cooperation from companies and forbids those companies to disclose anything about the demands. It would apply globally, though British authorities would have to ask Apple for information stored by specific customers.

Advisers to the U.S. government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closely held information, said they did not know of any such blanket order by a major democracy in the past. They said they were worried that other governments, such as China or even the United States, might demand similar access.

Many security experts and technology trade groups have condemned the order, which British officials have not confirmed or denied.

“Most experts in the democratic world agree that what the U.K. is proposing would weaken digital security for everyone, not just in the U.K., but worldwide,” said Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Center.

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Wyden has been a leading voice against government back doors for years, and Biggs chairs a subcommittee on government surveillance.

“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 men wrote in the letter to Gabbard.

“The U.S. government must not permit what is effectively a foreign cyberattack waged through political means,” they said. “If the U.K. does not immediately reverse this dangerous effort, we urge you to reevaluate U.S.-U.K. cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as U.S. intelligence sharing with the U.K.”

If Apple obeys the British order, it is possible that officials there would share information from Americans with American intelligence, experts said. While Gabbard testified that the United States generally can’t ask an ally to do something that the United States is legally prohibited from doing itself, that would not stop Britain from volunteering information it thinks would be useful, they said.

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The lawmakers argued that in addition to exposing Americans to direct foreign spying, back doors are vulnerable to exploitation by hackers and adversarial countries. They cited the recent “Salt Typhoon” hacks attributed to China, which rummaged through phone networks and took advantage of systems installed for law enforcement monitoring.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to questions from The Post.

Gabbard agreed in her confirmation hearing that back doors “can undermine Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and civil liberties,” the two lawmakers noted.

Apple opposed the British demand for more than a year before it became final in January. U.S. officials were also aware of the order, but it could not be learned whether they objected.

The U.S. law enforcement community long opposed end-to-end encryption, complaining that criminals were operating in secret by “going dark.” But officials have grown more supportive of the feature in the wake of serious hacks, including one that exposed thousands of government emails hosted by Microsoft in the cloud.

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Also Thursday, Wyden began circulating a draft bill that would modify the 2018 CLOUD Act, which allows foreign governments to request information directly from U.S. companies without imposing U.S. due process requirements. The new bill would require judges in the country making the request to sign off on them.
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[1] URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/13/apple-uk-security-back-door-adp/
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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