Back door report: British government wants full access to iCloud

As part of its “Snoopers’ Charter”, a comprehensive spy law called Investigatory Powers Act, the British government wanted to access all Apple iCloud data-and not just those that the group is particularly secure. That reports The Financial Times Referring to the administration documents under the Labor Minister of Minister Keir Strandmer, who thus seems to continue the policy of the conservative preservation under the Tories.

Access to all iCloud data of all protective classes worldwide

Accordingly, Great Britain apparently wants to access all iCloud data worldwide via a back door to be set up by Apple. The fact that this had been requested via a so -called – and secret – Technical Capability Notice (TCN) was only known because Apple defends itself against a special tribunal. The US government had already lodged her veto, President Trump compared the British plans to China. Most recently, it was said on the part of the U.S. Secretary Heads Tulsi Gabbard that London decided not to spy on American citizens and to bury the back door plans. However, according to the Financial-Times report, there is still no official decision by the British government.

Apple had deactivated its security function Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in Great Britain, which the group introduced to further secure iCloud in 2023. This does not even know Apple the iCloud content because they are encrypted with a key that is only available to the user. ICLOUD Drive and other sensitive content such as those coveted by investigators because valuable device backups in iCloud have been protected since then. Observers had assumed that the British government through the Investigatory Powers Act primarily wanted to reach this content, but the state authorities there seem to be calling for a kind of position in the iCloud data centers.

Secret procedure with “accepted facts”

What exactly is in the TCN is still secret. The procedure currently negotiated before the special tribunal is largely – it is only possible to publicize the content because both parties speak of hypothetical orders (“Assumed Facts”), a kind of legal trick so that the lawyers do not make themselves punishable. According to Financial Times, more information on what the British government is asking for would only be known if Apple wins the procedure. However, it is in the stars whether this will be the case.

According to the documents that Financial Times could see, the TCN contains an obligation to “provide and maintain and maintain a function to disclose data categories that are stored in a cloud-based backup service”. The document also says black and white that the British government not only wants to see information from British users (or those who are in Great Britain), but also “globally for all relevant data categories of all iCloud users”. So far, what the EU Commission thinks of the sniffing demand of the British, which would also affect EU citizens, has been unclear.