U.K. Drops Order for Apple to Build Backdoor to Encrypted Data

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Monday that the U.K. had agreed to drop its mandate requiring Apple to build a “backdoor” into its encrypted devices and services, a move that would have exposed the protected data of American citizens.

Gabbard announced the decision in a statement on X, noting she had worked for months with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to reach an agreement with the U.K. government.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in Washington on Monday with other European leaders for talks with Trump, which also covered Russia’s war in Ukraine. Neither the U.K. government nor Apple immediately responded to requests for comment on Gabbard’s remarks.

The U.K. order, first issued earlier this year, required Apple to create a backdoor to its encrypted cloud storage systems. U.S. lawmakers had warned in May that such access could be exploited by cybercriminals and authoritarian regimes. Cybersecurity experts also cautioned that any backdoor created for governments would likely be discovered and abused by hackers.

Apple, which has consistently said it would never weaken its encryption, challenged the U.K. directive at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. In February, it pulled its Advanced Data Protection feature from devices in the U.K., a tool that allows users to ensure that only they — not even Apple — can unlock data stored on its cloud.

U.S. officials had also raised concerns that the U.K.’s move could have violated the CLOUD Act, which prohibits either government from demanding direct access to the data of each other’s citizens. In a February 25 letter to U.S. lawmakers, Gabbard said the issue was under review.

Apple has clashed with governments over encryption for nearly a decade, including a 2016 case in which the U.S. tried to compel the company to unlock an iPhone linked to a suspected extremist.