UK Censors Seeking Backdoor Access To Apple Users’ Data: Court Docs

The United Kingdom sought to force Apple to give it “backdoor” access to private customer data, according to court documents.

Court filings viewed by multiple outlets, including the Financial Times and the BBC, indicated that London sought deeper access to private customer data than previously thought, seeking access to Apple’s iCloud service. It shows that the U.K. hasn’t yet acquiesced to the Trump administration’s demand to drop the effort to access U.S. citizens’ private information. Trump administration officials said last week that the U.K. “agreed to drop” the effort.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal published the court documents on Wednesday as part of a court case filed by Apple in March.

In the “assumed facts” of the filing, Apple said it received a technical capability notice (TCN) from the Home Office several months ago. The new filing revealed that the TCN “is not limited to” data stored under its optional encrypted Advanced Data Protection, suggesting that it sought bulk interception access to Apple’s standard iCloud service, the Financial Times reported.

The TCN included “obligations to provide and maintain a capability to disclose categories of data stored within a cloud-based backup service,” Apple alleged, implying London sought access to messages or passwords backed up in the cloud.

“The obligations included in the TCN are not limited to the U.K. or users of the service in the U.K.; they apply globally in respect of the relevant data categories of all iCloud users,” the filing added.