UK has backed down on demand to access US Apple user data, spy chief says

Tulsi Gabbbard says Home Office no longer demanding ‘backdoor’ to encrypted material

The UK government has dropped its insistence that Apple allows law enforcement officials “backdoor” access to US customer data, Donald Trump’s spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, says.

The US director of national intelligence posted the claim on X following a months-long dispute embroiling the iPhone manufacturer, the UK government and the US president. Trump had weighed in to accuse Britain of behaving like China, telling the prime minister, Keir Starmer: “You can’t do this”.

Neither the Home Office nor Apple are commenting on the alleged agreement, which Gabbard said meant the UK was no longer demanding that Apple “provide a ‘backdoor’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties”.

The transatlantic row began when the Home Office issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple under the Investigatory Powers Act, which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence. Apple responded by launching a legal challenge, which the Home Office demanded be kept secret but judges ordered be made public.