US Legislators Demand Transparency in Apple’s UK Backdoor Court Fight

Read more about Apple’s UK backdoor court battle:

A bipartisan group of five US Members of Congress and Senators has called for full transparency in the ongoing legal battle between Apple and the UK government over law enforcement access to encrypted data.

In a March 13 letter, the group requested the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), part of the UK’s Home Office, to “remove the cloak of secrecy related to notices given to American technology companies by the UK.”

Specifically, the five US legislators referred to a reported technical capability notice sent to Apple by the UK Home Secretary in February.

The notice requested the American tech giant grant the British government access to end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) data stored in its iCloud service.

The Home Office demand, which cannot be publicized by law, is most likely to have been made under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) of 2016. This controversial law allows the government to force tech firms to unmask users suspected of serious crimes.

Apple has reportedly appealed and the company faced an initial IPT hearing behind closed doors on March 14.

US Lawmakers: UK Request Threatens Security

The group of US legislators said the request directs Apple “to weaken the security of its iCloud backup service to facilitate spying by the UK government.”

The authors added that such requests “infringe on free speech and privacy, undermines important US Congress and UK parliamentary oversight, harms national security, and ultimately, undermines the special relationship between the US and the UK.”

The letter also highlighted the importance of Congressional oversight on the security of US technology companies’ products against foreign surveillance, given several recent high-profile hacks.

These include the 2024 Salt Typhoon incident where China reportedly tapped the phone calls of senior officials, the April 2024 Snowflake incident involving a massive data breach at AT&T and a summer 2023 hack by China that compromised US government email accounts and stole thousands of emails.

Read more: CISA Urges Encrypted Messaging After Salt Typhoon Hack

The legislators reported that Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, had stated that the UK’s alleged demand would constitute “a clear and egregious violation of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties’ and create a serious vulnerability for cyber exploitation by adversarial actors.”

They also noted that President Trump had publicly confirmed raising the issue with Prime Minister Starmer during his recent visit to Washington, drawing a comparison between the UK’s actions and the conduct of China.

Calls for Public Hearings in UK vs. Apple Battle

The five US legislators requested that the IPT open the March 14 session and all subsequent Apple hearings to the public.

“The existence of the technical capabilities notice has been widely reported and commented on, making any argument for a closed hearing on this very existence unsustainable,” the authors wrote.

The legislators believe more transparency in this legal case is necessary for the following reasons:

• Public hearings would enable the IPT to better assess the issue by considering expert evidence from a range of stakeholders, including cybersecurity specialists, civil society representatives and experts on US-UK data flows
• Greater transparency would serve the public interest by shedding light on the extent to which important communications services may have been deliberately compromised, potentially making them less secure
• Open proceedings would also enhance public trust in the process and outcome of the case

The signatories of the letter included Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH).

A group of digital advocacy NGOs, including Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch and Index on Censorship, published an open letter with a similar request on March 13.

Meanwhile, similar debates are unfolding in France and Sweden as legislators consider bills that could impose government backdoor requirements on tech companies, further intensifying the widespread tension between technological privacy and national security.

Read more: Signal May Exit Sweden If Government Imposes Encryption Backdoor