Apple Pulls Its Advanced ICloud Encryption Feature In The UK

Tech giants often find themselves in a spot of bother when they have to do something they aren’t willing. That’s exactly what’s happening with Apple now, as it was made to pull its advanced encryption feature for cloud data in the UK. The decision came after last week the UK government secretly ordered Apple to scrap the feature.

Apple pulls its advanced iCloud encryption feature following the UK government’s order

The end-to-end encryption feature that Apple removed in the UK is the Advanced Data Protection. It’s an optional feature that adds an extra layer of security to iCloud data storage, and a lot more. The best part of enabling it is that no one can really access your data. That’s not all; the owner of such data can only decrypt it, on their trusted devices. Now, the feature is no longer available for new users in the UK.

Apple’s spokesperson, in a statement, told The Verge, “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.”

Not to forget, users in the UK will have time to disable the ADP feature to keep their iCloud running. However, there was no mention of a deadline by the company. As Apple pulls the encryption feature, the UK government can easily request user data from Apple.

Apple’s decision to pull the encryption feature may have pleased the security officials who have long opposed the encryption feature saying it makes it hard to catch criminals. However, we can’t deny that it’s quite frustrating news for iCloud users in the country. The decision comes as Apple is facing a new privacy lawsuit in France over misuse of Siri.

Apple fought for users’ right to privacy in the past

Apple has long been an advocate of user’s right to privacy. In 2016, Apple successfully fought a US order to unlock the encrypted iPhone of a criminal. The fact that Apple, instead of creating a backdoor, pulled the encryption feature shows that it is unhappy with the order.

Speaking of the same, Apple says, “As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.” Furthermore, the decision doesn’t impact end-to-end encryption for other Apple features, like iMessage, FaceTime, and more.