UK demands ability to access Apple users’ encrypted data
The British government demanded that Apple create a Backdor in its encrypted cloud service, in confrontation, which challenges the current position of the US Technological Company to protect user confidentiality.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that the Ministry of the Interior has issued a “notification of technical capabilities” in accordance with the Law on Commerce of Investigation (IPA), which requires companies to help law enforcement agencies in providing evidence.
The demand made last month belongs to the Apple Advanced Data Protection Data (ADP) service, which strongly encrypts personal data loaded and stored remotely on Apple cloud servers, according to a message that says that it was a “general” request that is a “general” request that is It applies to any Apple user around the world. The ADP service uses through encryption, the security form, which means that only the account owner can decrypt files, and no one else can, including Apple.
Apple refused to comment. Nevertheless, last year, in the representation of the Parliament, he noted his fears about the IPA, saying that it had given the government to “the powers to issue secret orders that require suppliers to violate encryption by introducing bacdors into their software products.”
Apple advertises confidentiality as one of its “basic values” and describes it as the “fundamental human right”.
The Apple document refers to the ADP function, claiming that “journalists and technical experts around the world” greeted it as “invaluable defense” for private data.
The idea also indicates that Apple will refuse to cooperate with the request, saying that the company “will never build a backdor” and prefers to withdraw “critical security functions” from the British market.
Nevertheless, the statement also indicates that the IPA allows the Government of Great Britain to impose requirements for companies based in other countries that apply to users around the world.
Alan Woodword, a professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey, said that the Great Britain government “lit a blue -touch newspaper on a really huge struggle in an endless saga on the debate of encryption.”
He added: “I do not understand how it should be decided, since Apple has made such a large point of confidentiality for users. If they join this technical notification, their reputation will be in catchers. They must quit it in mind. ”
The through encryption has become the battlefield between the consistent governments of Great Britain and technological companies, and the ministers say that the technology prevents the fight against criminals, including rapists.
It is also forbidden for companies to disclose whether they received a technological notification in accordance with the IPA. The Washington Post reported that by the time Apple made its statement last March last year, the American company was informed that a notification could be filed on it. The newspaper stated that the Biden administration has tracked this issue since the Government of Great Britain informed Apple that it might demand access, and Apple said that she would refuse.
The representative of the Ministry of the Interior said: “We do not comment on operating issues, including, for example, confirming or refusing to exist any such notifications.”
The idea associated with amendments to the IPA, adopted last year under the government of Rishi Sunak, included the provision of authority to ministers to in advance any changes in the product that could change the ability of the UK government access to users data.
One expert warned that the multinational nature of the order can lead to a clash with the EU, which concludes consent with the UK, which allows a free flow of personal data between the EU and Great Britain, such as the company in Europe, using the data center for the UK, comes to consideration this year .
“This can be provided by a bacher for access to data on European citizens who can withstand our ability to save personal data without restrictions between Great Britain and Europe,” said Ross Mackenzie, a data protection partner in the British Law Firm Addleshaw Goddard