Two years after Apple has introduced a encrypted storage function for iPhone users, the company is pulling those security protections in Great Britain rather than satisfying a request for the government that creates a tool to provide the organizations of the law that access to access to cloud data of customers.
Starting from Friday, iPhone users in Great Britain will begin to see a message on their phones saying that Apple can no longer offer its advanced data protection functionality. The functionality allowed users to encrypt almost all their iCloud data, making messages, notes, photos and backups of indecipherable iPhones, even when the information has been stored in cloud computing centers.
Apple is removing the function after the British government has asked the company to create a rear door that would allow intelligence agencies and law enforcement officers to recover iPhone users from data centers from all over the world, According to two people who are familiar with the request, who spoke on a condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the demand of the British government.
The government’s request arrived in a secret order at the beginning of this year, after Britain has changed the law on 2016 investigative powers, which allows it to force companies to deliver the data and communications to the forces of order and intelligence agencies.
Last year, Apple protested the amendments in a presentation to Parliament, saying that the power could give the British government to issue secret orders to break the encryption services and create a rear door in software products.
By eliminating the function, Apple hopes that the British government drops its request to create a door on the back of the user’s cloud data, people said. But there is the possibility that the British government can continue to press for that access, claiming that people who could use the service abroad represent a threat to British interest.
“We are seriously disappointed,” said Fred Sainz, Apple spokesman in a note. He said that the advanced protection of data offered British customers protection from hacks and security violations.
“As we said many times before, we have never built a rear door or a master’s key for any of our products or services, and we will never do it,” added Sainz.
The British home office did not immediately have a statement.
The Washington Post has previously reported at the request of the British government.
The elimination of Apple of the advanced data protection reports the clock on the amount of data from iPhone users accessible to the British authorities. Before his introduction, Apple had refused to help the police unlock the iPhones, but satisfied the requests for Icloud backups that included un encreased messages and photographs.
The gap in Apple’s encryption in the data centers allowed the police to obtain reserved messages in high profile cases. In the United States, law enforcement officers were able to request the ICloud backup of Paul Manafort, president of the 2016 Trump president’s campaign. The request gave them access to the WhatsApp messages of Mr. Manafort, who were used to build a case against him.
For years, Apple has resisted to completely encrypt the iCloud data because it wanted to make it easier for customers to recover their information if they were blocked by their accounts. But as data violations around the world increased, society moved to expand its encryption offers in 2022 with advanced data protection. The function is optional and must be activated by users.
The clash between Apple and the British government recalls the struggle that the company had with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2016 for access to an iPhone used by an attacker who had killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. The FBI wanted Apple to unlock the attacker’s iPhone, but Apple refused. In the end, the government gained access with the help of a hacking company.
In the following years, Apple marketed his devices as more private than his competitors, promising that what is on an iPhone remains on an iPhone. The company broadcast a spot last year showing surveillance cameras, which are common in the British roads, flying around and looking at the shoulders of people while watching their phones. When iPhone users open their safari browser, the cameras explode.
The opinions on encryption have moved throughout the United States government after a recent sophisticated violation of American telecommunications. During the elections last year, a hacking operation linked to the Chinese government by a group called Salt Typhoon targeted the devices of Mr. Trump and JD Vance, his running companion. Subsequently, the United States computer and infrastructure security agency invited smartphone users to use encrypted communication systems.
“Cryptography is the glue and mortar that holds together the bricks of our digital lives,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, a distinct technologist of the Internet Society, a non -profit organization that supports the internet infrastructure. “This would lead not only to collapses but colo catastrophic.”