Two years after Apple had introduced a coded storage function for iPhone users, the company draws security protection in Great Britain instead of complying with a government request that creates a tool to give law enforcement organizations access to cloud data of customers.
From Friday, iPhone users in Great -Britain will start seeing a message on their phones, saying that Apple can no longer offer the advanced data protection function. With the possibility, users were able to cod almost all their iCloud data, messages, notes, photos and iPhone -back -ups without deciphering, even when the information was stored in Cloud Computing Centers.
Apple removes the position after the British government had demanded the company to create a back door that would enable intelligence services and law enforcement officers to pick up iPhone user data from data centers around the world, according to two people who are familiar with the request about it about The condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the demand of the British government.
The government request came into a secret command at the beginning of this year, after Great Britain has changed its investigative powers of 2016, so that companies can force data and communication to transfer to law enforcement and intelligence services.
Last year Apple protested against the changes in a parliament and said that it could give the British government power to issue secret orders to break coding services and create a back door in software products.
By eliminating the position, Apple hopes that the British government will drop its request to create a back door to the cloud data of users, the people said. But there is a chance that the British government could continue to insist on that access, with the argument that people who can use the service abroad are a threat to the British interest.
“We are seriously disappointed,” said Fred Sainz, an Apple spokesperson, in a statement. He said advanced data protection British customers had offered protection against hacks and infringements of security.
“As we have said before, we have never built a back door or head key to one of our products or services, and we will never do that,” Mr Sainz added.
The British Home Office did not immediately have an explanation.
The Washington Post previously reported at the request of the British government.
Apple's elimination of advanced data protection returns the clock to the amount of data from iPhone users who are accessible to the British authorities. Before the introduction, Apple had refused to help law enforcement to unlock iPhones, but the requests for iCloud -Back -ups with non -coded messages and photos.
The gap in the coding of Apple in data centers made it possible for law enforcement to obtain confidential messages in high -profile matters. In the United States, law enforcement officials could ask the iCloud -Back -up of Paul Manafort, chairman of the 2016 campaign of President Trump 2016. The request gave them access to the WhatsApp reports of Mr. Manafort, who were used to build a case against him.
For years, Apple opposed the complete coding of iCloud data because it wanted to make it easier for customers to pick up their information if they were locked from their accounts. But as the data breaches all over the world increased, the company moved to expand its coding offer in 2022 with advanced data protection. The function is optional and must be switched on by users.
The collision between Apple and the British government is reminiscent of the fight that the company had with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2016 about access to an iPhone used by an attacker who had killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. The FBI wanted Apple to unlock the iPhone of the attacker, but Apple refused. The government eventually gained access with the help of a hacking agency.
In the following years, Apple has brought its devices to the market as more private than its competitors, promises that what is on an iPhone stays on an iPhone. The company broadcast a commercial last year with surveillance cameras, which are common in the British streets, fly around and look over people's shoulders while looking at their phones. When iPhone users open their safari browser, the cameras explode.
The views on coding have shifted over the US government after a recent refined violation of American telecommunications. During last year's elections, hacking operation was linked to the Chinese government by a group called Salt Typhoon focused on the devices of Mr Trump and JD Vance, his current partner. Afterwards, the American cyber security and infrastructure protection agency were to use to use coded communication systems for smartphone users.
“Encryption is the glue and mortar that keeps the stones of our digital life together,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, a leading technologist at the Internet Society, a non -profit that argues for the infrastructure of the internet. “This would lead to not only collapses, but catastrophic collapse.”
