2d ago

Cornered by the UK’s Demand for an Encryption Backdoor, Apple Turns Off Its Strongest Security Setting.

www.eff.org Cornered by the UK’s Demand for an Encryption Backdoor, Apple Turns Off Its Strongest Security Setting

Today, in response to the U.K.’s demands for a backdoor, Apple has stopped offering users in the U.K. Advanced Data Protection, an optional feature in iCloud that turns on end-to-end encryption for files, backups, and more. Had Apple complied with the U.K.’s original demands, they would have been...

Technology @lemmy.zip

Cat @ponder.cat

2d ago

Cornered by the UK’s Demand for an Encryption Backdoor, Apple Turns Off Its Strongest Security Setting.

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/02/cornered-uks-demand-encryption-backdoor-apple-turns-its-strongest-security-setting

20 2

5 comments

Apple's decision to disable the feature for U.K. users could well be the only reasonable response at this point
Hard disagree. The most reasonable response would be to refuse to comply, organize, and fight it in court. But that would cost them money. And they don't care about their users that much.
E: Meta says they will not comply

Troubling precedent, but I expect no one used this anyways. Anybody who needs this would be smart enough to know not to trust so proprietary a device and service.
Given how ~~readily Apple has rolled over for law enforcement in the past~~ loudly Apple has opposed working with law enforcement in the past, only for devices to be magically unlocked anyways, this is (probably) just security theater.
- Yeah, it's 3rd party vendors like greykey and cellibrite that allow LEO to get around apples security.
  To its credit, apple does a fairly decent job of staying ahead of the unlocking tech, but some older hardware and os are easily cracked.
  https://cybersecuritynews.com/phones-cellebrite-tool-can-unlock/
- Do you have citations for “Apple has rolled over for law enforcement in the past”? I’m wondering if this is country-specific.
  Fortunately you can still back up your devices locally, and store your photos locally, and these backups can be encrypted.
  
  Apple-FBI encryption dispute
  My recollection was erroneous, as I can't (easily) find evidence of them rolling over. But the devices in question still got unlocked, so in the end it didn't matter whether Apple (openly or surreptitiously) cooperated.