The UK government has issued a new order to Apple to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time targeting only British users’ data, despite US claims that Britain had abandoned all attempts to break the tech giant’s encryption.
The UK Home Office demanded in early September that Apple create a means to allow officials access to encrypted cloud backups, but stipulated that the order applied only to British citizens’ data, according to people briefed on the matter.
A previous technical capability notice (TCN) issued in January sought global access to encrypted user data. That move sparked a diplomatic clash between the UK and US governments and threatened to derail the two nations’ efforts to secure a trade agreement.
In February, Apple withdrew its most secure cloud storage service, iCloud Advanced Data Protection, from the UK.
“Apple is still unable to offer Advanced Data Protection in the United Kingdom to new users,” Apple said on Wednesday. “We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP are not available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy.”
It added: “As we have said many times before, we have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
The Home Office said: “We do not comment on operational matters, including, for example, confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.
“We will always take all actions necessary at the domestic level to keep UK citizens safe.”
Both Apple and the Home Office are restricted from discussing TCNs by law.
Privacy campaigners say that any attempt to force Apple to compromise the security of its systems could put at risk global customers’ private information, including passwords, message history and health data, which can all be stored in iCloud.