A few weeks after the UK government demanded Apple to create a backdoor on users’ encrypted iCloud accounts to retrieve the content any Apple user has uploaded to the cloud, Apple decided to pull out Advanced Data Protection from the region.
As previously reported by BGR, the UK government requested access to the company’s encryption technology in January. However, it doesn’t want help accessing a specific account or data but to be able to access anyone’s data anytime and anywhere.
This is why, starting today, users who try to access the feature in the UK will encounter this User Interface language: “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users.”
To BGR, Apple sent a statement about pulling Advanced Data Protection from the region: “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users, and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature. ADP protects iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, which means the data can only be decrypted by the user who owns it, and only on their trusted devices,” says the statement.
“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. Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before. Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
Still, Apple says that withdrawing Advanced Data Protection from the UK will not affect the 14 iCloud data categories that are end-to-end encrypted by default. Importantly, data like iCloud Keychain and Health remain protected with full end-to-end encryption.
The company adds that those in the UK who enabled ADP will soon have additional guidance, as the company cannot disable this feature automatically. Apple will give UK users a period of time to turn off the feature themselves so they can keep using their iCloud account.
This change in the UK won’t impact this feature in the rest of the globe.
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