Apple is withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection tool from the UK, leaving iCloud users without the highest level of encryption the company currently offers. The move comes just weeks after reports emerged that the British government was pressuring Apple to create a backdoor into its encrypted services for law enforcement and spying purposes.
ADP is an opt-in security tool, which provides end-to-end encryption for iCloud services to those who want it. The UK's Home Office had refused to confirm or deny whether it made a request to Apple to turn it off, but the company has made it clear that's not a decision that it wanted to take.
Apple is "gravely disappointed" that it will no longer be able to offer ADP to UK users, especially given "the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy," said a company spokesperson in a statement. "Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before."
The decision is "the regrettable consequence" of the Home Office's "outrageous order" to force Apple into weakening security, said Rebecca Vincent, interim director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch. "As a result, from today Apple's UK customers are less safe and secure than they were yesterday -- and this will quickly prove to have much wider implications for internet users in the UK," she said.
Apple expressed its hope that it will at some point in the future be able to offer the highest level encryption to iCloud users in the UK again. But for now, any UK-based iCloud users who try to enable ADP will, from today, be met with a message informing them that the tool is not available to them. In time, existing users will be told they need to disable the feature (Apple can't do this for them).
The Apple spokesperson made it clear that this is not the same as providing the government with a backdoor through its encryption. "We have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will," they said.
ADP will still work outside of the UK and can be enabled to protect the following nine iCloud features: iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes and Freeform. Other key iPhone features, including iMessage, FaceTime, iCloud Keychain and Apple Health continue to benefit from end-to-end encryption, both in the UK and throughout the rest of the world.