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Despite requests by US lawmakers, the UK government has privately held a hearing between itself and Apple regarding a British government request for the US tech giant to grant it “backdoor” access to its cloud storage systems.
The hearing, which regarded Apple’s appeal of the backdoor, was held on Friday (14 March), with media and the public unable to observe, according to the BBC.
The UK reportedly held the hearing privately despite requests by US lawmakers to make it public in the interest of Apple users and the government.
Five US federal lawmakers, including Senator Ron Wyden, wrote to the head of the British Investigatory Powers Tribunal, requesting that the hearing between the UK government and Apple be made public.
“Given the significant technical complexity of this issue, as well as the important national security harms that will result from weakening cyber security defences, it is imperative that the UK’s technical demands of Apple – and of any other US companies – be subjected to robust, public analysis and debate by cyber security experts,” the members said.
“Secret court hearings featuring intelligence agencies and a handful of individuals approved by them do not enable robust challenges on highly technical matters.”
Apple has so far been legally barred from publicly commenting on the “technical capabilities notice”, which US lawmakers have condemned, saying that the UK has prevented Apple from “constitutionally protected” free speech.
For context, the backdoor was created by Apple after the UK government demanded that the US tech giant grant it the right to access customer data hidden behind its most secure encryption – Advanced Data Protection (ADP).
While Apple’s standard level of encryption allows access with a warrant, ADP is its most secure privacy measure and prevents even Apple from accessing using the opt-in security feature for encryption.
The UK demanded access to the data of Apple users for cases of national security threats.
Rather than comply with the order, Apple created a “backdoor” tool to allow the UK to access it. The tech giant said it was disappointed in having to remove ADP for the UK and that it maintains it is against compromising user security. However, at the beginning of March, Apple appealed the UK order with the nation’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
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