UK can't keep its encryption fight with Apple private, court rules

Exactly two months ago, we reported on how the UK government wanted to spy on not just iCloud users living in the UK, but the world over, by ordering Apple to provide a backdoor in iCloud that allows the authorities to view whatever you upload to the cloud storage service, even content under Advanced Data Protection (ADP).

Apple, at the time, was reportedly considering an appeal against the order from the British government. Still, before the appeal, the company removed access to Advanced Data Protection (ADP) for UK users, leaving only the Standard Data Protection (SDP) option to users in the UK, which guarantees end-to-end encryption for certain types of data.

Then, last month, Apple formally appealed the directive from the British government, with rights groups demanding that the hearing be made public instead of being held behind closed doors.

Now, Reuters reports that the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has refused the British government's decision to keep the "bare details" of the case private. Given the fact that neither party involved in this case has confirmed the accuracy of the reports surrounding this case, the tribunal added the following statement:

This judgment should not be taken as an indication that the media reporting is or is not accurate.

The IPT's judges, Rabinder Singh and Jeremy Johnson, threw out the British government's argument that revealing the details of the case would severely jeopardize national security, stating:

We do not accept that the revelation of the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security.

This is not the first time we've heard such a rebuttal to the "national security" argument from the British government. The rights groups that demanded that the hearing itself last month be held public touched on this, stating:

There are no good reasons to keep this hearing entirely private, not least for the fact that the existence of the TCN [Technical Capability Notice] has already been widely reported and that Apple’s own actions in removing its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature for U.K. iCloud users leave no doubt as to what triggered them.

Apple has stood up to authorities' calls to weaken encryption multiple times in the past. Perhaps most notably was back in 2016, when it refused to help the FBI by unlocking the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter.