UK government issues new order to Apple to create a backdoor into iCloud storage service

The UK government has issued a new order to Apple to create a backdoor into its iCloud storage service, this time targeting only British users’ data, despite U.S. claims that Britain had abandoned all attempts to break the tech giant’s encryption, Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
for Financial Times:
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The UK Home Office demanded in early September that Apple create a means to allow officials access to encrypted cloud backups, but stipulated that the order applied only to British citizens’ data, according to people briefed on the matter.
A previous technical capability notice (TCN) issued in January sought global access to encrypted user data. That move sparked a diplomatic clash between the UK and US governments and threatened to derail the two nations’ efforts to secure a trade agreement. 
In February, Apple withdrew its most secure cloud storage service, iCloud Advanced Data Protection, from the UK. It said at the time: “As we have said many times before, we have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
Privacy campaigners say that any attempt to force Apple to compromise the security of its systems could put at risk global customers’ private information, including passwords, message history and health data, which can all be stored in iCloud. 
Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director of the campaign group Privacy International, said the new order might be “just as big a threat to worldwide security and privacy” as the old one.
She said: “If Apple breaks end-to-end encryption for the UK, it breaks it for everyone. The resulting vulnerability can be exploited by hostile states, criminals and other bad actors the world over.”
Key figures in Donald Trump’s administration, including vice-president JD Vance and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, had pressured the UK to retract the January TCN. President Donald Trump has likened the UK’s request to Chinese state surveillance. 
In August, Gabbard told the Financial Times that the UK had “agreed to drop” its demand that Apple enable access to “the protected encrypted data of American citizens”.

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MacDailyNews Take: We pity British citizens.
It’s not enough that every Brit alive has a government camera shoved up their ass 24/7/365? The UK has already slipped so far down the slope that they ought to rename the place Airstrip One. – MacDailyNews, November 3, 2015
The UK is a surveillance state gone amok. – MacDailyNews, April 8, 2025
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin
The current batshit insane “leadership” of Airstrip One is having yet another crisis of confidence. – MacDailyNews, February 7, 2025
Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. – Potter Stewart
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s Advanced Data Protection for iCloud is an optional setting that offers Apple’s highest level of cloud data security. If you choose to enable Advanced Data Protection, the majority of your iCloud data — including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more — is protected using end-to-end encryption. No one else can access your end-to-end encrypted data, not even Apple, and this data remains secure even in the case of a data breach in the cloud.
How to turn on Advanced Data Protection for iCloud
On Mac

Choose Apple menu  > System Settings.
Click your name, then click iCloud.
Click Advanced Data Protection, then click Turn On.
Follow the onscreen instructions to review your recovery methods and enable Advanced Data Protection.

On iPhone and iPad

Open the Settings app.
Tap your name, then tap iCloud.
Scroll down, tap Advanced Data Protection, then tap Turn on Advanced Data Protection.
Follow the onscreen instructions to review your recovery methods and enable Advanced Data Protection.

More info about Apple’s Advanced Data Protection for iCloud here.

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