California (GNP): Apple has filed a new legal challenge against a UK government demand for access to its customers’ encrypted data, a year after the Home Office agreed to abandon a previous request of the same kind. The company lodged its complaint last month with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent court empowered to examine claims that UK intelligence agencies have acted unlawfully.
According to an order issued by the tribunal, the UK government had made a second request for “back door” access to encrypted iCloud data belonging to British users. Britain had withdrawn its original demand, which had also sought access to data from American customers, last year following a tense transatlantic dispute over encryption between London and Washington. UK authorities subsequently issued a new technical capability notice to Apple that applied only to British users.
Apple’s latest legal case, first reported by the Financial Times, seeks to challenge the government’s authority to issue such notices under the UK Investigatory Powers Act. The legislation compels technology companies to assist law enforcement in cases involving terrorism and child sexual abuse, and can require firms to grant security services access to customer data even where that data is protected by encryption.
The tribunal has notified human rights group Privacy International of Apple’s new complaint, given that the organization, along with fellow campaigner Liberty, had already filed a separate challenge against such notices.
Among their submissions, the campaigners have asked that Apple’s case be heard publicly given the public interest involved, and have challenged the lawfulness, necessity and secrecy of both the reported Apple notice and the broader legal framework governing such orders. Privacy International said a case management hearing to coordinate the parallel complaints has been scheduled for next month.
A spokesperson for Privacy International welcomed news of Apple’s renewed challenge, saying that if it relates to previously reported orders targeting the security of Apple’s iCloud storage, the case would be significant in helping safeguard user privacy and security more broadly, alongside the group’s own complaint and that of Liberty. Neither Apple nor the Home Office has commented on the matter, as both are legally restricted from discussing the notices publicly.
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The original notice, issued last year, had sought the right for authorities to access user data protected under Apple’s Advanced Data Protection program in cases involving national security risks.
Apple had argued that removing the safeguard, which even the company itself cannot access, would leave users more exposed to data breaches and other privacy threats, and warned that creating such access would make all user data potentially retrievable by Apple and subject to disclosure under law enforcement warrants.
As a result, Apple withdrew UK customers’ access to the Advanced Data Protection program in January 2025. The Home Office has continued to maintain that the Investigatory Powers Act includes strong safeguards and is applied only when strictly necessary.
