The UK’s war on encryption affects all of us

is a policy reporter. Her past work has focused on immigration politics, border surveillance technologies, and the rise of the New Right. Update February 21st: Apple has removed its Advanced Data Protection feature in the UK, calling itself “gravely disappointed” with the move. The encryption wars have reached a fever pitch, and the most contentious battle is not happening in the United States, where much of the action has been in the past — like the government’s efforts to restrict exports of encryption software until the 1990s and the FBI’s standoff with Apple in 2016. It’s in the United Kingdom, where the government has reportedly ordered Apple to give officials blanket access to iCloud users’ encrypted backups. And the order allegedly didn’t just apply to UK users — it demanded backdoor access for users worldwide. The secret order, first reported by The Washington Post, was issued in January under the auspices of the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. Apple’s compliance or r ... Read full article.