U.S. intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard said she worked with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to secure the reversal.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Monday the U.K. has dropped its requirement for Apple to provide a so-called backdoor to American users’ encrypted data.
In a post on X, Gabbard said she had worked with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to ensure “Americans’ private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.”
She added that the UK had agreed to abandon its mandate for Apple to create a backdoor that would have given authorities access to U.S. citizens’ encrypted data.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also expressed support for Gabbard’s post on X.
The order had been issued earlier this year under the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act, which allows officials to compel companies to disable encryption through a “technical capability notice.”
Apple had been required to switch off its Advanced Data Protection feature for iCloud in Britain, preventing full end-to-end encryption of user data stored in the cloud, including device backups and voice memos.
Apple complied with the mandate in February in what was described at the time as an unprecedented step for a company that has long emphasized user privacy.
The company said in March it was “deeply concerned” about the proposed amendments to the law, warning that the UK could seek to secretly veto security features globally.
Rights groups also criticized the order. Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director at London-based rights group Privacy International, called it one of the UK government’s “most intrusive and potentially damaging” surveillance powers and said the move risked setting a precedent for other governments, according to a Bloomberg report.
It remains unclear whether Apple will reinstate Advanced Data Protection in the UK following the policy reversal.
Bloomberg columnist Mark Gurman, a specialized Apple reporte, said in a post on X that this didn’t mean Advanced Data Protection was coming back to the U.K. anytime soon.
“I doubt that’ll happen until the order is reversed for all nationalities,” he added.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for Apple was ‘bearish’ amid ‘low’ message volume.
Apple’s stock has declined 7.5% so far in 2025.
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