Apple has threatened to remove iMessages, video messaging or FaceTime calls from its products in the UK over proposed changes to spying and surveillance laws.
Apple objects to the government’s plans to grant the Ministry of the Interior powers to issue court orders to intercept encrypted messages and disable the security feature in correspondence without notifying the user.
Critics call the changes to Britain’s laws a “voyeur’s pact”.
Apple responded to the British government by saying changes to surveillance laws would give the Home Office oversight over security updates for its products, including regular updates to the iOS operating system.
The company noted that the proposals would give the Secretary of the Interior effective control over security and encryption updates globally, and would “make the Department of the Interior the de facto global arbiter of the level of data security and encryption allowed.”
Apple said its products would not serve as a “backdoor” for the government, and that it would instead pull security features on its products in the UK.
Apple said the proposed changes would “lead to an impossible choice between complying with the Home Office’s mandate to secretly disable new security technologies (which Apple would never do), or abandoning development of these technologies altogether and sitting on the sidelines as threats to the security of users’ data continue to grow.”
The Home Office says the bill’s proposals are designed to protect citizens from criminals, pedophiles and terrorists.
She adds that all legislation is still under discussion and that no decisions have been taken yet in this regard.
2023-07-22 01:47:31
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