UK silence over demand for Apple data access is farcical, lawyer says

The British government's refusal to confirm or deny demands for backdoor access to Apple Inc.'s encrypted customer data has been challenged in court as 'farcical.' At a hearing before London's Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), lawyers representing civil rights groups Privacy International and Liberty argued alongside Apple that the government's secrecy policy undermines open justice and blocks meaningful public debate, given that the existence of the notices has already become widely known. Britain initially issued a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) in January of last year seeking access to encrypted cloud backups of U.S. and UK citizens, before dropping that request after talks with the U.S. administration. A subsequent notice in July applied solely to Apple's UK users, prompting Apple to withdraw its Advanced Data Protection feature in the UK and launch a legal challenge. The government contends that confirming TCNs poses national security risks and assists hostile actors. A formal ruling on the government's 'neither confirm nor deny' stance will be delivered at a later date, while a full hearing on the underlying legal challenge is not expected until next year.