Two years after the introduction of a encrypted storage feature for iPhone users, the company is pulling these security protections in Britain and not complying with a government request that it is creating a tool to give access to the law enforcement organizations to customer cloud data.
Starting on Friday, iPhone users in Britain will begin to see a message on their phones saying that Apple can no longer offer advanced data protection. The ability has allowed users to encrypt almost all their iCloud data by making messages, notes, photos and backups of iPhone, undisputed, even when the information was stored in cloud computing centers.
Apple removes the feature after the British government has asked the company to create a rear door that would allow information organizations and law enforcement officials to recover iPhone user data from data centers worldwide, according to two people familiar The request, who spoke in anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the British government’s request.
The government’s request came to a secret order at the beginning of this year, after Britain amended the 2016 exploratory law, which allows it to force companies to convert data and communications to law enforcement and information services.
Last year, Apple complained about submission amendments to Parliament, saying it could give British government power to issue secret orders to break encryption services and create a back door to software products.
With the elimination of the feature, Apple hopes that the British government will reduce its request to create a back door to user cloud data, people said. But there is a possibility that the British government could continue to push for this access, arguing that people who could use the service abroad are a threat to British interest.
“We are seriously disappointed,” said Fred Sainz, an Apple spokesman, in a statement. He said that Advanced Data Protection had offered British customers protection against safety and violations of security.
“As we said many times before, we never built a back door or a key key to any of our products or services and we will never do it,” Mr Sainz added.
The British office at home did not have a statement immediately.
The Washington Post previously referred to the British government’s request.
The elimination of advanced data protection from Apple returns the clock to the amount of data from the users of the British authorities accessible to the British authorities. Prior to its introduction, Apple declined to help enforce the law on unlocking iPhones, but fulfilled ICLOUD backup requests that included non -encrypted messages and photos.
The gap in Apple’s encryption at data centers allowed law to receive confidential messages in high profile cases. In the United States, law enforcement officials were able to request Paul Manafort’s iCloud Backup, president of President Trump 2016 campaign. .
For years, Apple has completely resisted by encrypting iCloud data because it wanted to make it easier for customers to retrieve their information if they were locked by their accounts. However, as data violations around the world have increased, the company moved to expand encryption bids in 2022 with advanced data protection. The feature is optional and must be activated by users.
The conflict between Apple and the British Government is reminiscent of the company the company with the 2016 federal investigation firm to access an iPhone used by an invader who had killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. The invader’s iphone, but Apple refused. The government eventually gained access by a hacking company.
Over the years, Apple has been marketed as more private than its competitors, promises that what is on an iPhone remains on an iPhone. The company was aired a trading last year showing surveillance cameras, which are common on British streets, fly around and looking over people’s shoulders as they see their phones. When iPhone users open the safari browser, the cameras explode.
Opinions on encryption have shifted throughout the US government after a recent sophisticated violation of US telecommunications. During last year’s elections, a hacking operation linked to the Chinese government by a team called Salt Typhoon targeted the devices of Mr Trump and JD Vance, his partner. Subsequently, the US cyberspace and the infrastructure security service called on smartphone users to use encrypted communication systems.
“Encryption is the glue and the mortar that holds the bricks of our digital life together,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, a distinguished technologist in the internet society, a non -profit company that supports the internet infrastructure. “This would lead not only to collapses but destructive collapses.”
