As a believer in equal protection under the law, it is never a win when a powerful company or government lobbies for a specific carve out for only it's customers or its country. Human rights like privacy don't belong to those who bought the right phone or were born on the right piece of soil.

This isn't a win, this is solidifying and reinforcing the idea that different laws should exist for different classes of people - those who can afford to make the government look the other way and those that can't.

Congratulations to Apple on lobbying for its own money. Very noble.

It's great that they're dropping it, but concerning that it was only because of pushback from US politicians.

Also important to note:

> With the order now reportedly removed, it’s unclear if Apple will restore access to its ADP service in the UK.

Good news for UK people.

I am all for laws designed to protect children, and stop terrorism. But these 'back door' laws are nearly always very poorly thought out and offers new avenues for 'normal' people to come to harm.

Title should say "reportedly drops" or "according to US official." No proof is offered other than a tweet from Tulsi Gabbard.

“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.”

Back doors to end-to-end encryption are considered bad now? Someone should tell the FBI. https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-investigate/lawful-access/lawful-...

> Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users.

Still there.

Small reprieve. Let's hope that Apple pushes back on Chat Control as well.

They will try again

The reason the UK dropped the demand is because they already have backdoor access to personal data using multiple methods, and to make the topic disappear for the time being.

Never use a mobile for anything that requires privacy or security. It's the intelligence agencies favourite tool.

Smoke and mirrors. The UK government got what they want with Apple disabling ADP. Until that's turned on, all iCloud backups are available to them.

That Apple can even claim it encrypts your data is such a bald-faced lie when Advanced Data Protection defaults to off.

First rule of backdoors: the intended user may not be the only user.

Which means they got it.

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Don't many governments themselves use Apple, especially the Americans? I always found this a weird demand if they do.

Or did they get what they want?

See you all around in a few months when they try the exact same thing :head slap:

So when can I have ADP back?

Bet that's not happening...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

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... says the most "truthy" US government since records began.

I don't want to be overly cynical but I'm resigned to never truly know details of national security. I have opinions but nobody is listening to them.

For now... they've tried and dropped this a half dozen times over the years.

more important things to yell about now like global id and age verification and doing everything in their power to hamstring AI development

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but what about the children! /s

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another reason to award the Nobel Prize to DJT if it was ever necessary