US examining whether UK's encryption demand broke bilateral agreement

27/2/2025 6:19

U.S. officials are examining whether the UK broke a

bilateral agreement by reportedly demanding that Apple

build a "backdoor" allowing the British government to access

backups of data in the company's encrypted cloud storage

systems.



Apple last week



withdrew



an encrypted storage feature for UK users, after reports

that it had refused to create such a backdoor allowing access to

messages and photos even for users outside the country. The

Washington Post



reported



that Apple rejected such a demand by the British

government.



In a letter dated February 25 to two U.S. lawmakers,

Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said

the U.S. is examining whether the UK government had violated the

CLOUD Act, which bars it from issuing demands for the data of

U.S. citizens and vice versa.



"My lawyers are working to provide a legal opinion on the

implications of the reported U.K. demands against Apple on the

bilateral CLOUD Act agreement," Gabbard wrote to U.S. Ron Wyden,

an Oregon Democrat, and Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican.



"Upon initial review of the U.S. and U.K. bilateral

CLOUD Act Agreement, the United Kingdom may not issue demands

for data of U.S. citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent

residents ("U.S. persons"), nor is it authorized to demand the

data of persons located inside the United States."



In 2022, Apple introduced end-to-end encryption for

iCloud backups of its iPhones, meaning that only the user -

rather than Apple - has the keys to unscramble the data.







Cybersecurity experts told Reuters



that if Apple had chosen to build a backdoor for a

government, that backdoor would eventually be found and

exploited by hackers.



Apple has sparred with regulators over encryption as far

back as 2016 when the U.S. government tried to compel it to

build a tool to unlock a terrorism suspect's iPhone.