The UK government has dropped its insistence that Apple allows law enforcement officials “backdoor” access to US customer data, Donald Trump’s spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, says.
The US director of national intelligence posted the claim on X following a months-long dispute embroiling the iPhone manufacturer, the UK government and the US president. Trump had weighed in to accuse Britain of behaving like China, telling the prime minister, Keir Starmer: “You can’t do this”.
Neither the Home Office nor Apple are commenting on the alleged agreement, which Gabbard said meant the UK was no longer demanding that Apple “provide a ‘backdoor’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties”.
The transatlantic row began when the Home Office issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple under the Investigatory Powers Act, which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence. Apple responded by launching a legal challenge, which the Home Office demanded be kept secret but judges ordered be made public.
The US vice-president, JD Vance, also complained saying: “I don’t want American citizens to be spied on.” He said it was “crazy” that “we’re creating a backdoor in our own technology networks that our enemies are now using”.
Civil liberties groups cautioned that the backdoor would put politicians, campaigners and minority groups at particular risk of being targeted.
In February, Apple responded by withdrawing the option for its new British customers to enable advance data protection options, saying it was “deeply disappointed” and would never build a backdoor into any of its products. That meant, uniquely, many UK customers were unable to benefit from end-to-end encryption of services, including the iCloud Drive, photos, notes or reminders, making them more vulnerable to data breaches.
Gabbard said: “Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside President Trump and Vice-President Vance, to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.”
It is not clear whether the technical capability notice requiring the data access would be withdrawn altogether or altered. It could in theory be limited to allowing access to the data only of UK citizens, although experts cautioned that could be technologically unrealistic. It also raises the danger that other foreign governments could still find a way to use the backdoor.
Neither is it clear whether Apple will be able to offer new UK customers access to its highest levels of data protection again.
The Home Office refused to confirm Gabbard’s claim, saying: “We do not comment on operational matters, including confirming or denying the existence of such notices. We have long had joint security and intelligence arrangements with the US to tackle the most serious threats, such as terrorism and child sexual abuse, including the role played by fast-moving technology in enabling those threats.”
It added: “Those arrangements have long contained safeguards to protect privacy and sovereignty: for example the data access agreement includes critical safeguards to prevent the UK and US from targeting the data of each other’s citizens. We will continue to build on those arrangements and we will also continue to maintain a strong security framework to ensure that we can continue to pursue terrorists and serious criminals operating in the UK. We will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe.”
The UK-US data access agreement allows UK agencies to submit requests for content of communications directly to communications service providers, including social media platforms and messaging services, in the US, but this must be for the purpose of investigating, preventing, detecting, and prosecuting serious crime, officials said.
Apple was approached for comment.