Last January, the UK Home Office served Apple with a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) under the UK Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) requiring Apple to create a back door to provide access to encrypted material stored in iCloud for British and non-British citizens. This step was taken following the 2024 amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which granted the UK government the authority to compel telecommunications providers to give prior notice of any service changes that might hinder law enforcement’s access to data. Notably, the IPA prohibits entities from publicly disclosing receipt of a TCN. When the amendment was first introduced, many stakeholders expressed concern that the proposed changes could affect companies’ ability to make global product updates, broaden the extraterritorial reach of the IPA, and expand the definition of telecommunications operators to include a wider range of individuals and companies that a TCN can serve.
In response to the TCN issued in January 2025, Apple ended the Advanced Data Protection tool last February for UK users, which provides end-to-end encryption to view items such as photos or documents they have stored on iCloud. United States Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, commented on this development in a letter to Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Andy Biggs, stating that she had “grave concern[s] about the serious implications of the United Kingdom, or any foreign country, requiring Apple or any company to create a ‘backdoor’ that would allow access to Americans personal encrypted data. This would be a clear and egregious violation of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, and open up a serious vulnerability for cyber exploitation by adversarial actors.” President Trump and Vice President JD Vance also expressed disapproval of this demand, saying that Britain’s actions infringed on Americans’ free speech rights.
Last year in March, Apple appealed the TCN to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). In April 2025, the IPT revealed publicly that there was a legal dispute over the UK government’s request to “maintain access to [Apple’s] users’ data in decrypted form,” but denied requests from journalists and media organizations to attend the hearing. The UK government initially petitioned for the hearing to be held entirely in secret without revealing the parties’ names, citing national security concerns, but the IPT denied this request stating that this “would be the most fundamental interference with the principle of open justice.” The IPT held that revealing the party names and hearing time “would [not] create any real risk of damage to the public interest or prejudice to the interests of national security.”
In August 2025, the UK Home Office dropped its request to create a back door to encrypted material that Apple held after reaching an agreement with the Trump administration. However, last October, the UK government issued another TCN, narrowing its scope to British citizens only, requesting access to encrypted cloud backups. In response to this ongoing issue, US lawmakers requested a briefing with the UK Home Office and the UK Embassy to understand why the UK government was pursuing this issue. The briefing deadline was March 11, 2026, but it is unclear whether it occurred.
