US says UK has agreed to drop encryption ‘back door’ demands against Apple

Risk to US civil liberties

Gabbard wrote in a statement on X: “Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside @POTUS and @VP to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.

“As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a ‘back door’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties,” she said.

According to a report by the Financial Times, Vance – who has previously attacked Europe and the UK for limiting free speech – intervened to ensure the UK government withdrew “the current back-door order” to Apple.

Gabbard publicly raised concerns in a letter to US lawmakers that the UK’s order against Apple could “undermine Americans’ privacy and civil liberties”. President Trump has also criticised the order as something that would be expected in China.

Apple has made a formal complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over the UK order, known as a Technical Capability Notice, which is due to be heard in early 2026.

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016, also known as the “Snoopers’ Charter”, allows the UK to impose orders on companies requiring them to make technical changes to their systems and allow access to data by UK law enforcement and intelligence services, and applies both in the UK and extraterritorially.

UK users may still face encryption ban

Commenting on the US announcement, Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, a campaign organisation, said that although the UK may have dropped its demands for Apple to backdoor all of its users across the globe, UK users may still be banned from using Apple's ADP encryption service. 

"If Apple does restore ADP to UK users, there will be serious questions of trust,” he added. "The UK's powers to attack encryption are still on the law books, and pose a serious risk to user security and protection against criminal abuse of our data."

Christopher Weatherhead, technology lead at civil society group, Privacy International has filed a legal challenge against the Home Office with Liberty at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, said there fundamental issues with Technical Capability Notices.

“While Tulsi Gabbard's statement appears to be a positive step for American citizens, it neither changes the secret regime that exists with Technical Capability Notices, nor stops the UK Government from issuing other such notices in the future," he added.

Call to amend US Cloud Act

In the US , Greg Nojeim, of the non-profit Centre for Democracy and Technology, said the organisation cautiously welcomed the UK’s apparent decision to drop its demand for a back door, adding that back doors “put the privacy and security of consumers, businesses and nationals at risk.”

“The Administration should be more transparent about any deal it cut with the UK, and Congress should amend the CLOUD Act to prevent other countries from issuing similar orders to U.S. service providers. No foreign government should be able to force providers to disable end-to-end encryption, and threaten the privacy and security of Americans and users around the world,” he said.  

Critical safeguards

The Home Office said its joint security and intelligence arrangements with the US to tackle the most serious threats, such as terrorism and child sexual abuse, “have long contained safeguards to protect privacy and sovereignty”.

The Home Office pointed to the US-UK Data Access Agreement, which allows UK and US law enforcement to request data from telecommunications companies when investigating serious crimes, and “includes critical safeguards to prevent the UK and US from targeting the data of each other’s citizens”.

“We will continue to build on those arrangements and we will also continue to maintain a strong security framework to ensure that we can continue to pursue terrorists and serious criminals operating in the UK,” a spokesman said. “We will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe.”

The Home Office said that it did not comment on operational matters including confirming or denying the existence of orders made under the Investigatory Powers Act.