UK Court Rules Against Government Efforts To Keep Apple Encryption Backdoor Appeal Secret

A UK court has struck down the government’s argument that all details of its attempts to force Apple to implement an encryption backdoor be kept private.

The UK government issued Apple a secret order in an attempt to force the company to implement a backdoor in its iCloud encryption. The nature of the order prevented Apple from even acknowledging its existence, at least until it was leaked to the media and widely reported.

Caught in an impossible situation, Apple chose to disable end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups within the UK, holding to past statements that it will never build a backdoor into its products. Meanwhile, the company has appealed the ruling, but even that process has been shrouded in government secrecy.

According to Reuters, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has shot down the government’s argument that the entire process be kept secret.

“We do not accept that the revelation of the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security,” said Judges Rabinder Singh and Jeremy Johnson.

While the case itself is yet to be decided, the ruling against the proceedings remaining secret is a big win for Apple and privacy advocates.

UK Government Embarking On A Dangerous Path

The UK government has become increasingly anti-encryption and anti-privacy in recent years, with the order against Apple being the latest escalation.

Like many jurisdictions and governments, the UK government sees end-to-end encryption as something dangerous that makes it more difficult to carry out investigations, prosecute criminals, and combat terrorism. While those may be legitimate downsides to encryption, the technology also protects state secrets, financial transactions, free speech, and the privacy of billions of innocent, law-abiding citizens around the world.

What’s more, as WPN has pointed out time and time again, there is no way to create a back door into encrypted systems for “the good guys” without also creating a vulnerability for “the bad guys” to exploit. Time and time again, legitimate backdoors and access points have been compromised and exploited by hackers, both for profit and for state-sponsored actions.

Only when governments realize that end-to-end encryption is a vital element of modern life will the average person’s privacy and security truly be safe.

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