LONDON — The British government has dropped its demand for Apple to provide “backdoor” access to user data, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Tuesday.
“Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside [the president and vice president] to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” Gabbard wrote on X.
Apple took the unprecedented step of removing its highest level of end-to-end encryption software — known as Advanced Data Protection — from the U.K. market in February after the Home Office issued a Technical Capability Notice to access the data under the Investigatory Powers Act, dubbed the “Snooper’s Charter” by critics.
The company then filed a complaint with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal challenging the Home Secretary’s powers to issue such a notice.
The dispute has been a sticking point in negotiations for a tech cooperation pact between London and Washington. The Financial Times reported last month that senior Washington officials, including Vice President JD Vance, were pressuring the U.K. to drop its fight with Apple.
The U.S. State Department’s annual assessment of countries’ human rights records published last month raised concerns about U.K. “government regulation to reduce or eliminate effective encryption (and therefore user privacy) on platforms,” though appeared to confuse the Online Safety Act with the Investigatory Powers Act.
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