Lawmakers warn that UK’s Apple backdoor demand ‘sets a dangerous precedent’

House lawmakers are pointing to reports from earlier this year that the United Kingdom secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor into encrypted iCloud backups as proof that the U.S. should reevaluate its cybersecurity and intelligence-sharing relationship with the UK.

Congress passed the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data — or CLOUD — Act in 2018 to allow U.S. law enforcement officials to obtain data from American companies stored on their overseas servers. The law directs U.S. firms to adhere to warrants for data, even if that data is stored on foreign soil, and also authorizes the creation of bilateral data-sharing agreements between the U.S. and allies. The CLOUD Act data access agreement between the U.S. and UK went into effect in October 2022. 

The Washington Post reported in February, however, that the UK issued a secret order to Apple requesting that the tech giant provide its law enforcement and intelligence personnel with the “blanket capability” to access customers’ encrypted files worldwide, meaning Apple customers residing in the U.S. would be cast into that dragnet.

Read more at NextGov/FCW