UK, US Hold Private Talks in Bid to Calm Apple Encryption Feud

British officials have held private talks with their US counterparts in an attempt to resolve concerns that the UK is trying to force Apple Inc. to build a backdoor into Americans’ encrypted data, according to people familiar with the matter.

The high-level discussions took place after Apple removed its most advanced encrypted security feature for cloud data in the UK. That was a response to an order by British authorities in January asking the company to circumvent encryption to help them pursue certain national security and criminal investigations.

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last month called for an inquiry into the matter, raising concerns about what she called a “clear and egregious violation of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.” The suggestion of a backdoor into Apple users’ data would also “open up a serious vulnerability for cyber exploitation by adversarial actors,” she warned.

On Friday, Apple’s appeal against the UK order will be heard at a secret hearing at London’s High Court, the BBC reported. The hearing will be held in private because it relates to Britain’s security services. 

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Gabbard’s office had no immediate comment. 

Behind the scenes, conversations have taken place between senior UK and US officials, initiated by the British side in an attempt to resolve the dispute, according to people familiar with the matter. Part of the discussions aimed to correct what the British side said was a misinformed narrative alleging they were seeking wide-ranging powers to access people’s communications.

The British officials stressed that they weren’t asking for blanket access to users’ personal data, and that they would only ever request data relating to the investigations of the most serious crimes, in particular terrorism and child sexual abuse. Separate warrants would have to be approved for each individual request, the people familiar with the matter said. They would be focused on criminals in the UK, not US residents, they added.

The rights of American citizens were safeguarded in the UK-US Data Access Agreement signed in 2019, the people said.

A UK Home Office spokesperson said they do not comment on operational matters. They added: “More broadly, the UK has a longstanding position of protecting our citizens from the very worst crimes, such as child sex abuse and terrorism, at the same time as protecting people’s privacy.”

Joint cooperation between the UK and US on intelligence sharing was essential and would continue under the new US administration, a British official said.

Apple has previously accused the UK government of “unprecedented overreach” and alleged that “the UK could attempt to secretly veto new user protections globally preventing us from ever offering them to customers.”

The move to pull its encryption feature — rather than complying and building a backdoor — was seen as a clear rebuke of the government’s order. “As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will,” Apple said last month.

With assistance from Natalia Drozdiak and Mark Gurman.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.