UK demands access to Apple users' encrypted data

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g288yldko

by tooba • 1 year ago

67 34 1 year ago

bbc.co.uk

redserk2• 1 year ago

And withdrawing the product from the UK might not be enough to ensure compliance - the Investigatory Powers Act applies worldwide to any tech firm with a UK market, even if they are not based in Britain.

That's incredibly demanding for a country that's been desperately trying to cling onto relevance for decades.

christkv• 1 year ago

If they were to get this it's time to sue Apple for breach of GDPR.

Longhanks• 1 year ago

To what extent is a country's relevance (whatever that even means) the decisive factor in determining what it is allowed to demand?

ben_w2• 1 year ago

Allowed? UK government can "demand" anything. Anything outside the UK's sovereign control, is necessarily only going to be given by those who have other reasons to do so besides the threat of being arrested by a police force that has no jurisdiction.

The company wants to do business in the UK, it has to follow UK law. UK law claims for itself the right to act globally, and has the power to arrest and fine the companies and officers of Apple that are based in the UK if they don't… but then the Pope claims supremacy over all Catholics* and gets ignored somewhat in this also, and for the same reason:

There are other governments involved, and they don't accept the UK's (/Pope's) jurisdiction exceeds their own.

And in this case, the laws of other nations seem to require Apple to violate this law, so Apple's officers have to decide between which country to risk having arrest their officers, or to leave the UK.

(I have no idea what's going to happen, because the intelligence community in every nation has reasons to want Apple to be forced to do this, so if Apple decides to agree with the UK and violate other nations' privacy laws, those privacy laws may get conveniently ignored).

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_supremacy

redserk2• 1 year ago

They can demand whatever they want, it doesn't mean their demands should or will be respected.

The UK only has ~70 million people.

jimkleiber2• 1 year ago

At some point I hope we get a government that governs global internet interactions. National governments are just making up silly jurisdiction rules because there's a customer that is currently in their place, overlooking the global nature or at least feel of the internet.

If I'm in one country and the person with whom im interacting is in another, whose geographical laws take precedence? Now imagine interacting with many many geographies at the same time.

It doesn't work and I hope one day we at least admit it to ourselves.

bathtub365• 1 year ago

You want even more consolidation of power?

tene80i3• 1 year ago

The U.K. is the sixth largest economy in the world. It’s hardly irrelevant, unless the only relevant countries are the USA and China.

portaouflop3• 1 year ago

large economy /= relevance

The uk economy is 80% services, mostly financial services and tourism, only 18% come from manufacturing

pydry• 1 year ago

One of the ways it hangs on is by being a part of 5 eyes "mutual spying club" meaning that US intelligencies can bypass domestic legal protections.

FuriouslyAdrift• 1 year ago

That just recently got ruled illegal by a Federal Court...

https://www.eff.org/cases/united-states-v-hasbajrami

newscracker• 1 year ago

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42970412

chrisjj• 1 year ago

Not dupe. Different report.

jonplackett2• 1 year ago

Politicians living in dreamland again about what encryption can and cannot do. I thought this stupidity had died with our last excuse for a government. Sad to see this is back.

sureIy2• 1 year ago

What do you mean? Do you have the key to your iCloud backups? You do not, your phone does. You know who has root access to your phone? Apple.

It would take a minute to set up some code to fetch the key, if they were legally forced to.

JKCalhoun• 1 year ago

So, "Just please sign into your phone for us, will you, and install this software update that we push through the pipe."

jonplackett2• 1 year ago

What I mean is they have this fantasy that they can weaken encryption in a way that only they can benefit from, and that if they’re given these keys they can realistically keep them safe.

krisbolton• 1 year ago

Lawfare has some good articles covering the different perspectives on the encryption debate from the last 10 years. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/search-results?prod_search-inde...

miohtama2• 1 year ago

And then in 90s

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars

mwagstaff• 1 year ago

As a UK citizen, I'm hoping this is actually a backdoor effort by the US to hack into people's data rather then something our fine folks were pushing for.

Or at the very least, it's a starting point for negotiations around how best to stop bad actors without compromising user security.

coldcode• 1 year ago

Apple could start with the UK politicians' iCloud backups, I am sure there is a lot of useful compromising information in them. That might cause a change in attitude.

flenserboy• 1 year ago

Apple could be the first modern corporation to declare war on a nation-state. They have the resources to set the internet hounds on them & make them absolutely miserable. Looks like the Heinlein/Snowcrash/Stross corporate futures are in play.

throw0101c• 1 year ago

MrScruff• 1 year ago

As an Apple user for decades and a UK citizen I would honestly rather they withdrew from the UK market rather than engage with this idiocy.

UK demands access to Apple users' encrypted data

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