Did you know UK Judges Reject Government’s Plea to Keep Apple’s E2E Encryption Battle Hidden Behind Closed Doors

 

The E2E encryption battle involving the UK government and Apple is one that many assumed would stay hidden for quite some time now. As shared by the British Broadcasting Corporation recently, that won’t be the case as tribunal judges rejected the government’s decision to keep all details about the matter hidden.

They claim it would be extraordinary to carry out a hearing that’s a complete secret without any form of revelation to the public, making them unaware that such a hearing was really taking place.

The entire fiasco began in February of this year when the British government forced iPhone maker Apple into developing a backdoor for iCloud encryption. Instead of following that order, the Cupertino firm chose to get rid of its Advanced Data Protection service in the country.

Other domains for this iCloud data continue to stay E2E encrypted like health, payments, and passwords, including all iMessages and FaceTime. With this, the iPhone maker couldn’t publicly acknowledge the issue of demands coming out from the UK under the latest law.

Apple went to the courts to file a complaint to the Powers Tribunal and sought to challenge the country’s order to break encryption for certain special cases. That secretive hearing started last month, even though a lot of pressure was on to make it go public.

Many arguments arose about how it would be threatening to national security if the details went public about the legal action. As per the BBC, this argument wasn’t able to withstand scrutiny. The latest ruling on this front was shared yesterday, where tribunal judges refused the request. They shared how media reporting and highlighting of these principles were necessary for justice.

It would be a massive step to carry out such hearings as a whole in private without the public knowing that such a matter actually took place. For the reasons outlined in the private judgment, they don’t accept such revelations of how baring the details could be damaging to the public or a threat to national security. So now, the public can expect to see more light being shed on the matter soon.