Apple May Drop iCloud Encryption in UK Over Government Access Demand

Key Takeaways

• The U.K.’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has reportedly demanded that Apple introduce a backdoor in iCloud encryption.
• To maintain the cloud service’s security, Apple may suspend encryption for U.K. users.
• The U.K. government has a track record of attempting to circumvent end-to-end encryption.

The U.K. government has reportedly ordered Apple to create a back door that could give law enforcement access to encrypted iCloud files.

If the government forces the matter, Apple will likely stop offering iCloud encryption in the U.K. rather than compromise security.

U.K.-Based iCloud Users Could Lose Encryption

According to the Washington Post, which first reported the story, the office of the U.K.’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper served Apple with a “technical capability notice” ordering it to provide access to encrypted systems.

Citing unnamed sources, the report said Apple, which is notoriously protective of its encryption keys, is likely to cease offering secure storage in the U.K.

Encryption in U.K. Law

Apple isn’t the first company that has found itself caught up in the U.K. government’s digital surveillance plans.

In 2023, messaging services, including WhatsApp and Signal, threatened to pull out of the country over provisions in the Online Safety Bill that would have criminalized end-to-end encryption.

The government argued that backdoors were needed to police online spaces where child abuse material is shared. But privacy advocates roundly condemned the notion.

“There have been consistent proposals out of the U.K. for backdoors across a number of years,” WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart noted at the time.

Foreshadowing the recent Apple development, Cathcart added that “we can’t introduce a vulnerability that just affects people in the U.K. on a global communication service.”

In the end, the government granted an eleventh-hour concession by agreeing not to impose the strictest interpretation of the law on technology companies.

However, the precise phrasing of the bill doesn’t completely rule out an encryption crackdown at a later date.

Privacy vs. Safety

Cooper’s reported request to Apple demonstrates that the current Labour government has adopted the same position as its predecessors—that compromising the privacy and security of digital communications is justified in the name of safety.

The privacy versus safety debate has a long history in the U.K., predating the latest clash over iCloud encryption and the 2023 Online Safety Bill.

Although the conversation these days tends to focus on preventing child sexual abuse, in 2015, then-Prime Minister David Cameron raised the issue in a different context—terrorism.

Responding to that year’s Paris gun attacks, Cameron suggested the government could legislate to ban privacy tools used by criminals, arguing that “we must not” allow a means of communication the state cannot pry into.

No matter how they are justified, encryption backdoors open the way for mass surveillance and threaten individuals’ right to privacy.

Without end-to-end encryption, iCloud users in the U.K. would potentially be even more exposed to government surveillance than in other high-surveillance countries such as China.

Ministers could have approached the issue through legislation as their predecessors did. But instead, the Home Secretary attempted to influence Apple behind closed doors with zero transparency, marking a chilling new chapter in the government’s long-running battle against encryption.