US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says the UK has dropped its mandate requiring Apple to provide a backdoor for accessing users' encrypted data

Britain has dropped its demand for the iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O) to provide a “backdoor” that would have enabled access …

Reuters 2025-08-19 Kanishka Singh

Context & Ripple Effects

The reported reversal follows a secret January demand for access to cloud content uploaded by Apple users globally, which prompted US lawmakers to press Washington to seek its withdrawal in a February appeal to the intelligence director.

The status of the demand remains contested in the coverage record: a later court filing said the UK had sought broad access, including bulk iCloud interception, and had not withdrawn the mandate as claimed in the subsequent court-filing report. That makes the episode consequential less as a settled policy outcome than as a test of cross-border authority over encrypted services.

First-order effects

If the mandate was withdrawn, Apple avoids an immediate requirement to alter encrypted-data access for the UK request described in the report.
Users and Apple can treat the claimed reversal as a temporary reduction in legal pressure on the service’s encryption model, though the later filing leaves that protection uncertain.

Second-order effects

The conflicting public accounts increase pressure on UK authorities and US officials to clarify the scope, legal basis, and status of any access order.
Other technology providers facing government access demands gain a closely watched precedent: a global-access request can become a bilateral political issue rather than a purely domestic compliance matter.

Third-order effects

The dispute points to a durable conflict between national security access mandates and globally deployed encryption: jurisdictional claims are likely to face greater diplomatic and legal resistance when they reach users outside the requesting country.
If governments continue to pursue provider-level access, the industry may increasingly have to distinguish country-specific compliance measures from changes that weaken protections across a global user base.

The trend: This is one episode in the widening contest over whether national governments can compel access to encrypted global cloud services without creating cross-border security and sovereignty conflicts.

Discussion

@tomwarren.co.uk Tom Warren on bluesky
the UK government has dropped its demand for a backdoor into Apple's encryption. This could open the door for Apple to bring back its Advanced Data Protection iCloud encryption to the UK for new users www.theverge.com/news/761240/ ...
@glynmoody Glyn Moody on bluesky
US spy chief Gabbard says UK agreed to drop ‘#backdoor’ mandate for Apple - www.reuters.com/sustainabili... humiliating climbdown for #starmer if confirmed
@paulbernal Paul Bernal on bluesky
It was inevitable... “UK backs down in Apple privacy row, US says” www.bbc.com/news/article...
@jjaron Jacob Aron on bluesky
Pretty embarrassing to be schooled by JD Vance www.ft.com/content/ab0a...
@billstewart Bill Stewart on bluesky
I have to say something not bad about Tulsi Gabbard. — (This doesn't happen often.) — Glad to hear she's negotiated to get the UK not to mandate backdoors in iPhone encryption.
@dnigabbard @dnigabbard 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
@allumbokhari Allum Bokhari on x
Highly important victory. This will also dissuade Eurocrats in their attempts to impose “chat control,” which would also hand them the power to scan all private encrypted messages. 19 EU member states currently back the proposal
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
To be clear: this doesn't mean Advanced Data Protection is coming back to the UK anytime soon. I doubt that'll happen until the order is reversed for all nationalities.
@prestonjbyrne Preston Byrne on x
UK folds on the Apple backdoor. Bravo to the Trump admin on a huge win for American tech. When are they going to fold on extraterritoriality under the Online Safety Act?
@johnwilson @johnwilson on x
@TimSweeneyEpic Apple didn't “cave.” The UK order didn't allow Apple to publicly acknowledge they even received it. Apple disabled E2E encryption in the UK to prevent being subject to the order & trampling on users' rights. You should stop being so disingenuous. It's pathetic.
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
@JohnWilson This is a misleading distortion. Apple disabled end-to-end encryption, putting all UK customer data within reach of the UK government.
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
This is a great move by the UK. Privacy is a human right, and government shouldn't have the power to demand surveillance backdoors in software. It's too bad Apple caved and disabled iCloud end-to-end encryption, but hopefully next time engineers hold execs to a higher standard.
@warrendavidson Warren Davidson on x
Great news! Excellent work by @DNIGabbard and team. As the founders recognized in the Constitution, privacy and security can coexist.
r/ukpolitics r on reddit
UK has “agreed to drop” demand for access to Apple user data, says US
r/DeclineIntoCensorship r on reddit
The UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a “back door”

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