Apple ends advanced end-to-end encryption in UK amid government pressure

Apple has announced that Advanced Data Protection, a feature providing end-to-end encryption for enhanced security across a wide range of user data, is no longer available for new users in the UK.

In Short

• Advanced Data Protection for iCloud data no longer available in the UK
• Current UK users will have to disable this security feature
• Move comes amid Britain's sweeping demand for user data

Apple is dropping its most advanced, end-to-end security encryption feature for cloud data in the UK, the company said on Friday in an unprecedented move after reports that the government demanded a backdoor for user data access.

Advanced Data Protection, an optional feature that adds end-to-end encryption for security across a wide range of user data, is no longer available in the UK for new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature, Apple said.

Governments routinely ask technology companies for user data to crack criminal cases, but Britain's demand, issued last month, is seen as particularly sweeping.

Britain issues such notices under its Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which combined various existing powers on intercepting and obtaining communications. While security officials say data encryption features make it harder to catch criminals, tech companies have long guarded their users' right to privacy.

"We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy," the company said in a statement.

Britain had ordered Apple to give it unprecedentedly broad access to encrypted user data stored on Apple's data cloud, the Washington Post newspaper reported earlier in February.

"We do not comment on operational matters, including, for example, confirming or denying the existence of any such notices," a spokesperson for Britain's interior ministry, or Home Office, said.

Apple has criticised a bill from the UK Parliament seeking access to user data as "unprecedented overreach". The company has also fended off government attempts in the past including in 2016 when law enforcement agencies tried to force Apple to unlock the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Apple reiterated on Friday that it would never build a back door into its technology. The move to stop offering ADP in the UK would not affect Apple services that are end-to-end encrypted by default such as its Health app, iMessage and FaceTime.