UK drops Apple backdoor order after US pressure

Britain has quietly withdrawn a legal notice that would have forced Apple to weaken the encryption protecting iCloud accounts worldwide, ending an eight-month transatlantic row over access to user data.

The reversal was revealed by the United States director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who wrote on X that “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”.

London’s original order, issued in January under the Investigatory Powers Act, required Apple to disable Advanced Data Protection (ADP), the end-to-end encryption option that stops anyone but the account holder reading cloud backups. Apple complied in February by withdrawing ADP for new and existing users in the UK while filing an appeal to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal scheduled for early 2026.

Washington’s involvement raised the diplomatic stakes. Reuters reported that Gabbard’s announcement followed “months of talks” with British officials and with President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance, as the White House examined whether the notice breached the bilateral CLOUD Act agreement.

Apple has declined to comment since the climb-down, but in an earlier statement the company said: “We have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services, and we never will”. Privacy groups welcomed the turnabout. “If true, this decision is hugely welcome,” said Sam Grant of civil rights charity Liberty, warning that any enforced weakness “would present a huge threat to our personal and national security”.

A UK government spokesperson insisted the country “will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe” while working with the United States “to tackle the most serious threats such as terrorism and child sexual abuse”. Officials refused to confirm whether similar technical capability notices remain in place for other firms.

It is not yet clear when – or if – Apple will re-enable ADP for British users, nor whether its tribunal challenge will proceed. Campaigners say the episode shows that the power to compel decryption is still written into UK law, leaving the possibility of fresh demands in future.