Cornered by the UK’s Demand for an Encryption Backdoor, Apple Turns Off Its Strongest Security Setting

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Today, in response to the U.K.’s demands for a backdoor, Apple has stopped offering users in the U.K. Advanced Data Protection, an optional feature in iCloud that turns on end-to-end encryption for files, backups, and more.

Had Apple complied with the U.K.’s original demands, they would have been required to create a backdoor not just for users in the U.K., but for people around the world, regardless of where they were or what citizenship they had. As we’ve said time and time again, any backdoor built for the government puts everyone at greater risk of hacking, identity theft, and fraud.

This blanket, worldwide demand put Apple in an untenable position. Apple has long claimed it wouldn’t create a backdoor, and in filings to the U.K. government in 2023, the company specifically raised the possibility of disabling features like Advanced Data Protection as an alternative. Apple’s decision to disable the feature for U.K. users could well be the only reasonable response at this point, but it leaves those people at the mercy of bad actors and deprives them of a key privacy-preserving technology. The U.K. has chosen to make its own citizens less safe and less free.

Although the U.K.

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