UK Government Drops Demand for iCloud Backdoor
Washington and London have at last managed to reach an accord on an issue that threatened to escalate into a serious diplomatic and technological conflict. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that the United Kingdom had abandoned its demand that Apple create a covert access mechanism enabling authorities to obtain encrypted data from American users. According to Gabbard, this resolution was achieved after several months of negotiations with the British side, involving President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
The turning point came with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington, where he joined other European leaders in discussions with Trump regarding the conflict in Eastern Europe. It was against the backdrop of these meetings that the agreement was formally announced. Official representatives of both the British government and Apple have so far refrained from comment.
Earlier in the spring, American lawmakers had voiced concerns that London’s demand for intelligence access to encrypted data would erode trust in digital security and create risks on a global scale. Their fear was that such a tool could fall into the hands of criminal groups or authoritarian regimes. Apple, in a dramatic step back in February, had disabled its Advanced Data Protection feature for users in the United Kingdom. This feature allows owners of iPhones, Macs, and other devices to encrypt their cloud backups so thoroughly that even Apple itself cannot access them.
The company appealed the directive to the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, while U.S. officials investigated whether Britain’s actions violated the CLOUD Act, a bilateral agreement expressly forbidding either party from demanding access to the data of the other’s citizens. In a letter dated February 25, Gabbard informed Congress that U.S. authorities were specifically examining London’s conduct in light of this treaty.
Experts warned that if Apple were ever compelled to create a universal encryption bypass, such a key would inevitably be discovered and exploited by malicious actors. The tech giant’s long history of disputes with governments over access to encrypted data is well documented. The most notable clash occurred in 2016, when U.S. authorities unsuccessfully attempted to force Apple to develop a tool for unlocking an iPhone belonging to a terrorism suspect.
Today’s decision by the United Kingdom to abandon the idea of a mandatory backdoor in Apple devices signals that pressure on smartphone manufacturers to weaken data protections is encountering strong resistance—not only from the companies themselves but also from international allies deeply concerned about the security implications.
