US politicians furious at UK demand for encrypted Apple data

Two American legislators have strongly condemned what they call a “dangerous” and “abbreviated” request for the United Kingdom to be able to access the encrypted data stored by Apple users all over the world in its cloud service.

Senator Ron Wayden and member of Congress Andy Biggs I wrote To the Director of National Intelligence, Toulcy Gabbard, saying that the request threatens the privacy and security of the United States.

They urge it to give the United Kingdom a warning: “Returning this dangerous attack on US cybersecurity, or facing severe consequences.”

BBC called the UK government to comment.

American politicians wrote: “Although the United Kingdom was a reliable ally, the US government should not allow the effectiveness of the foreign electronic attack that was launched through political means,” said American politicians.

If the United Kingdom does not retreat from Mrs. Gabbard, it must “re -evaluate the cybersecurity arrangements and programs of the United States of America as well as the participation of the American intelligence.”

demand The data appeared last week.

It applies to all the stores stored using what you call Apple “Advanced Data Protecting” (ADP).

This encryption is used from end to tip, where the account holder only can access the stored data. Apple itself cannot see it.

It is a restriction service, and not all users choose to activate it.

demand It was reported for the first time by the Washington PostQuoting sources familiar with the matter, and the BBC spoke to similar contacts.

The Ministry of Interior said at the time: “We do not comment on operational issues, including, for example, to confirm or deny the existence of any such notifications.”

Apple refused to comment, But he says on his website It sees privacy as a “basic human right”.

The application was submitted by the Ministry of Interior under the Investigation Power Law, which forces companies to provide information for law enforcement agencies.

Under the law, the request from the Ministry of Interior cannot be announced.

Senator, hands and a member of Congress Biggs says that the agreement will “undermine the privacy rights of the Americans and offer them to spy by China, Russia and other opponents.”

They mention that Apple does not make different versions of its encryption program for each country in which it works, and therefore, Apple customers in the United Kingdom will use the same program as Americans.

“If Apple is forced to build a rear door in its products, this rear door will end with Americans, tablets and computers, which undermines the security of Americans’ data, as well as countless federal and state agencies and the local government that takes on Apple’s sensitive data.”

This step was amazed by the UK government experts and anxiety from privacy activists, as Privacy International described it as an “unprecedented attack” on the private data of individuals.

However, the United States government has previously asked Apple to break its encryption as part of the criminal investigations.

In 2016, Apple resisted the court order to write programs Which will allow officials to reach the iPhone from the armed – although this was dissolved after the FBI managed to successfully access the device.

In the same year, We have dropped a similar case After I was able to reach by discovering the passcode for alleged drug stores.

I followed similar cases, including in 2020, Matthew Apple refused to open iPhone devices for a man Those who carried out a mass shooting at an American air base. The FBI later said he was able to “reach” to the phones.

It is understood that the UK government does not want to start combing everyone’s data.

Instead, you may want to reach it if there is a danger to national security – in other words, it will target the individual, instead of using collective monitoring.

The authorities still have to follow a legal process, and they have a good reason and request permission for a specific account in order to access the data – just as they are now doing with non -encrypted data.

Apple has already said it will withdraw encryption services such as ADP from the UK market instead of compliance with such government demands – telling Parliament that it “will not build a rear door” in its products.

WhatsApp, Meta owned, also has Previously said He will choose to be banned from the security of weak messages.

But even withdrawing the product from the United Kingdom may not be sufficient to ensure compliance – the investigation powers law all over the world applies to any technical company with a market in the United Kingdom, even if it is not based in Britain.