Taimur Asad·

Apple Yanks Its Enhanced iPhone iCloud Encryption Feature In UK Over Government Backdoor Demands

Apple has announced that it has removed the Advanced Data Protection iCloud feature from the United Kingdom.

The UK government had previously demanded that Apple add a backdoor to the feature in order to allow it to access encrypted data for global users.

Now, rather than comply Apple has told its customers in the UK that the ADP feature is no longer available. Those who already have it enabled will be required to disable it by an as-yet-unconfirmed date, Bloomberg reports.

“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,” Apple said in a statement. “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.”

ADP adds end-to-end encryption to more data than is the case as standard. With ADP enabled, iPhone users enjoy end-to-end encryption for iCloud data including Photos, Notes, Messages backups, and backups.

However, it’s important to remember that this move does not remove all encryption for users in the UK. Features like iMessage, password syncing, Apple Health data, and FaceTime calls will remain encrypted and are not affected by this news.

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