US politicians furious at UK demand for encrypted Apple data

Two U.S. lawmakers have strongly condemned the United Kingdom's request for access to encrypted data of Apple users stored in its cloud services, calling it "dangerous" and "shortsighted." Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Andy Biggs have written to the Director of National Intelligence, stating that the UK's request threatens American privacy and security. This highlights the ongoing tension between national security concerns and individual data protection.

They urged the Director of National Intelligence to issue an ultimatum to the UK: "Abandon this dangerous assault on American cybersecurity, or face severe consequences." The lawmakers wrote in their letter, "While the United Kingdom has been a trusted ally, the U.S. government must not allow what is effectively a foreign cyberattack by political means." This firm stance reflects a growing concern about potential overreach in international data access requests.

The two U.S. lawmakers suggested that if the UK does not concede, the Director of National Intelligence should "reassess U.S.-UK cybersecurity arrangements and programs, as well as U.S. intelligence sharing." The UK government is seeking access to all content stored using Apple's "Advanced Data Protection" (ADP) feature. This feature employs end-to-end encryption, meaning only the account holder can access the stored data, and Apple itself cannot view it.

This service is opt-in, and not all users choose to activate it. Reportedly, the UK government does not want to start sifting through everyone's data, but rather wants to access data in cases where there is a national security risk—in other words, it would target individuals, not be used for mass surveillance. Even now, to access unencrypted data, authorities must still follow legal procedures, have sufficient justification, and request permission to access specific accounts.

Apple has previously stated that it would rather withdraw encrypted services like ADP from the UK market than comply with such government requests, and told Parliament it would "never build a backdoor into its products." Meta's WhatsApp has also said it would rather be blocked than weaken message security. However, even withdrawing products from the UK may not be enough to ensure compliance—the Investigatory Powers Act applies to all tech companies with a UK market presence, even if they are not headquartered there.