Apple pulls iCloud end-to-end encryption feature for UK users after government demanded backdoor

Apple on Friday confirmed that it provides a security feature “no longer” that allows UK users to encrypt their iCloud data.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Apple’s spokesman Fred Sanjz said the company Advanced data protection The feature will no longer be available for new users and current UK users “will eventually need to disable this security feature.”

“We are severely disappointed that protection provided by ADP will not be available due to the continuous growth of data violations to our customers in the UK and other threats for customer privacy,” the company said.

The statement said, “Increasing the protection of cloud storage with the end to the end is more important than ever.”

The announcement comes after The UK government has ordered Apple is a construction early this year Backdoor This will allow the British authorities to access the “blanket” access to users stored on Apple’s cloud servers, even if it is Encrypt from the end to the endThe This request, viewed as unprecedented in a modern democracy, Worried privacy and protection expertsWho argued that if the British government exists, this claim will be set up by the authoritarian countries.

Apple provides the option of launching the encrypted iCloud backups through advanced data protection. This feature effectively makes it impossible for anyone to see the data stored in the iCloud, including Apple and Government Authority.

A spokeswoman from the UK Home Office did not immediately respond to the request for TechCrunch comment.

Apple did not immediately say how the process of disabled ADP was already launched before Friday did not say how to work for them.

James Bakr, working for the UK Digital Rights Organization Open Rights Group, said “Home office activities have deprived millions of British security features.

Apple says that there are some types of data, including health data, Icloud, and some types of data, which are encrypted by default for all users, will not be affected by this change and it will be encrypted for everyone. However, UK users will not be able to use end -to -end encryption for other types of data such as photos, notes, backups And other dataWhich was encrypted under ADP.

For those who have already enabled ADP, Apple has said that it will soon give more directions to the customers, as well as a period of disable the feature to continue using the iCloud.

ADP is not influenced by UK users, Apple says, and the end -to -end communication services such as facetime and images are not affected.

“As we have said many times before, we have never made any backdoor or master of any of our products or services and we will never do,” Apple said, Its pre -speechThe

BBC News reported This ADP stopped being an alternative for new users, starting from the UK time at 3pm on Friday. TechCrunch also confirmed that ADP and UK are not alternatives to new users.

Since the emergence of encryption in the mid-sixties, worldwide governments have argued that this data-scrambling technology will allow criminals and terrorists to break the law while avoiding law enforcement. Over the years, the authorities have always found a way, until the use of spyware, from accessing backups to access direct data to the human device.

Johns Hopkins University Cryptography Specialist and Teacher Matthew Green, “If you are not in the United Kingdom you should launch ADP right now” Wrote x In response to the news.

Green said, “The more people use it, the more difficult it is to close.”

In the ninth paragraph clearly clearly makes the forms of information protected under advanced data protection.

This story was updated to include James Baker’s statement.