Apple has announced that it will no longer offer its optional Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature in the United Kingdom, effectively ending access to end-to-end encryption for new users in the country. This decision, which took effect Friday, follows a secret order from the UK government, requesting that Apple create a backdoor to allow access to customers' encrypted cloud data.
Introduced in December 2022, ADP allowed users to protect their iCloud data with a higher level of encryption, ensuring that only trusted devices could decrypt it. However, Apple has now confirmed that any new users in the UK attempting to activate the feature will be met with an error message. Existing users will see their access to ADP revoked in the near future.
Apple’s decision stems from the government's pressure to implement a "backdoor" for law enforcement to access unencrypted data, even without a user’s consent. Apple has long opposed the creation of such backdoors, citing concerns that allowing government access to encrypted data would open the door for malicious actors to exploit the vulnerability. The company said that it "never created a backdoor or master key" and "never allowed any government direct access to Apple servers."
The Home Office declined to confirm or deny the existence of any official request for the backdoor. A spokesperson for the UK government told the BBC, “We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices."
The move to disable ADP in the UK means that certain iCloud data, which would previously have been encrypted with the additional protection, will no longer receive that level of security. However, standard iCloud data encryption remains intact, allowing Apple to provide access to law enforcement if they possess the necessary legal warrants.
Apple said that ADP continues to be available to customers globally, ensuring that users outside of the UK can still enable the feature to keep their iCloud data fully encrypted and private.
Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime services, along with data from Health and iCloud Keychain, will continue to be end-to-end encrypted in the UK.
