UK drops mandate forcing Apple to provide 'back door' to Americans' data after pressure from Trump administration

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Monday that the U.K. government officially agreed to withdraw its mandate for tech giant Apple to provide a "back door," which would allow access to the protected and encrypted data of millions of U.S. citizens. On X, Gabbard posted a message detailing that the U.K.'s decision came after months of work to materialize an agreement between President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and the British government.

"Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside, to ensure Americans' private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected. As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a 'back door' that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties," Gabbard said.

CLOUD Act

In May, several lawmakers commented that the U.K.'s order to Apple to create a backdoor to its users' encrypted data could represent an opportunity for both dictatorial governments around the world and cybercriminalsto access the personal information of millions of people. Similarly, several officials explained that they were assessing whether the U.K. had violated a bilateral agreement by requiring the tech giant to build this backdoor, the purpose of which was reportedly to gain access to data backups on Apple's cloud storage systems.

In a letter sent on Feb. 25 to several lawmakers, Gabbard commented that the Trump administration was analyzing whether the British government had violated the CLOUD Act, which formally prohibits both the United States and the United Kingdom from issuing demands in order to access the data of citizens of the other. Apple, which has assured on numerous occasions that it will never build a back door into its devices or services, had previously challenged the order before the U.K.'s Investigatory Powers Tribunal.