Did you know Apple’s Legal Battle Hearing with UK Government Against Access to User Data Heard Behind Closed Doors

 

A hearing in the Apple legal battle with the British government regarding access to user data was recently held behind closed doors.

The news comes just one day after we saw privacy groups in the UK demand the proceedings be done more transparently as the public’s rights were at stake. Despite that, the press failed to get entry into the courtroom and was denied access.

The American tech giant rolled out an appeal against the decision made by the tribunal regarding the Home Office’s decision to demand encrypted data that’s found on Apple’s iCloud servers. Many media outlets, including the BBC, Computer Weekly, and the Guardian, made submissions for entry, but that did not go as planned and they were denied entry.

It was interesting to see Sir James Eadie, who usually represents the government in top cases, make an entry to the courtroom for this hearing.

The iPhone maker is fighting a tech capability notice rolled out under the nation’s Investigatory Powers Act. This forces organizations to help different law enforcement agencies in getting evidence.

This notice demands access to the company’s ADP service that focuses mostly on highly sensitive encrypted data belonging to users that is stored remotely across servers.

Apple shared how it was not in favor of the decision. Therefore, the order was challenged at the tribunal, which is designed to determine if the domestic challenge service act as per law or not. The news comes after the Cupertino firm chose to withdraw from the ADP in February this year.

Apple time and time again reiterates how it never designed a backdoor or any kind of master key for products and will never be following this kind of practice in the future as well.

The ADP makes use of E2E, which means only account holders get the chance for file decryption. Meanwhile, messaging services like iMessage and FaceTime continue to be E2E through default means.

The government’s hidden legal demands are commonly known as a tech capability notice or TCN. Therefore, recipients of this TCN can’t share the existence of this order until they’re provided with permission from the home secretary. The website also spoke about how hearings should be dealt with in private only when it’s deemed absolutely necessary to do so.

It also mentioned how there needs to be zero information disclosure that might be a threat to the country’s national security. Two days back, American lawmakers were seen calling on the tribunal to get rid of this cloak of secrecy related to the British government’s order and make Friday’s hearing public.

As per a recent report from Bloomberg, officials in the UK rolled out talks with American counterparts regarding this order. Therefore, the UK continues to assure America that it’s not getting any kind of blanket access. It only wishes for data related to serious criminal offenses or terrorist attacks, or matters linked to abuse.