Washington/London — Britain has dropped its demand for Apple to provide a backdoor that would have allowed access to encrypted data stored by U.S. users, DNI Tulsi Gabbard said on X on Monday. The claim comes after months of high‑level talks that reportedly involved Washington and London, with President Donald Trump and Vice‑President JD Vance named as participants in the effort. According to the original report, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in Washington that day to meet Trump and other European leaders to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine. A British government spokesperson declined to comment on any agreement but stressed that London has long worked with the United States to tackle security threats while protecting the privacy of citizens. Apple did not respond to requests for comment. The background matters: Apple had withdrawn its Advanced Data Protection feature for UK users in February after a UK order seeking backdoor access under the Investigatory Powers Act. Apple has said it would never build such access, while cybersecurity experts warned that any backdoor could be discovered and misused. The company’s position and the security implications have been a persistent point of contention in the cross‑border data dialogue.

The dispute centred on whether UK authorities could compel access to encrypted data in Apple’s iCloud backups and other services under the Investigatory Powers Act or the CLOUD Act, and what that would mean for privacy and security in both countries. Reuters summaries of the U.S. assessment note that officials were examining whether Britain had violated bilateral data‑sharing frameworks by pressing for such access. In addition, observers highlighted that Apple had already removed ADP for UK users in February, a move that underscored the practical consequences of the case for data protection in Britain. The Guardian’s reporting later explained that Apple’s ADP removal shifted more data to standard encryption, which Apple could access with warrants, raising questions about what data remains protected by default encryption and what that implies for cross‑border investigations.

BBC News’s coverage provides a country‑level technical snapshot: Apple’s ADP tool in Britain was no longer offered to new UK customers, with the nine data categories previously covered by ADP reclassified under Standard Data Protection, while 14 categories remained end‑to‑end encrypted by default. iMessage and FaceTime remain protected by end‑to‑end encryption. The Home Office was described as seeking access under the Investigatory Powers Act, a framing that has fuelled ongoing debate about privacy, civil liberties and the handling of cross‑border data. The Guardian’s August coverage adds that officials did not publicly confirm any agreement and emphasises the diplomatic sensitivities surrounding intelligence sharing, with privacy advocates warning that any erosion of encryption standards could have broader security implications.

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Source: Noah Wire Services