UK silence over demand for Apple data access is farcical, lawyer says

The British government’s refusal to confirm whether it has issued an order to bypass encryption to access customer data held by Apple has become farcical, a lawyer for civil rights groups told a London tribunal on Thursday.

In January last year, Britain issued an order, known as a technical capability notice, for what is known as a back door to allow it access to encrypted cloud backups of data of U.S. and British citizens.

That demand was dropped following months of ​negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, but in July Britain issued a second notice that applied just to Apple’s UK customers.