Encryption

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

The Government has supposedly used powers it gave itself in the Investigatory Powers Act to try and secretly force Apple to allow it to access millions of people’s personal data stored on iCloud.

These secret orders, known as Technical Capability Notices (TCNs), compel a company to make changes to their services so that the UK can use its investigatory powers. They’re so secret that it is a criminal offence to disclose you have received one as a tech company.

This is apparently the second time the UK Government has issued a TCN to Apple. The first – reported in February 2025 – aimed to create a backdoor to the data stored on Apple’s iCloud system of users anywhere in the world. Apple reportedly challenged the TCN.

The Financial Times discovered that the Government withdrew this TCN, and in October 2025, Apple’s legal challenge was dismissed.

However, reports have now emerged that the Government issued a second TCN targeting “British users”. In August 2026, we were informed that Apple has filed a new claim against the UK’s powers to issue TCNs.

The Government’s plans are a reckless and potentially unlawful move that would open up a backdoor to our private data, including personal messages and documents, that could be accessed by hackers and oppressive governments.

This would put us all at risk, and particularly marginalised groups such as political dissidents and religious and LGBT+ communities, who could be targeted or put under surveillance. This would also impact:

• politicians who might have their data compromised / our national security at risk of being compromised
• journalists who’d be at risk of surveillance, and having confidential messages with sources accessed
• any of us who store our data on Apple’s iCloud service which could now potentially be accessed by our government, by foreign governments or by hackers. This is a big deal – it changes the way we all stay safe on the internet, and puts our personal and private information, messages, and pictures at risk.

WHY SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED?

People can choose to protect their iCloud data with the highest level of security – end-to-end encryption – which means only we can see what we put there, not even Apple can see it.

End-to-end encryption exists to protect us – we might have our bank details, health records, pictures of our families, or private conversations protected by it – things we don’t want others to see for obvious reasons.

The Government wants a backdoor created so they can get into these files when they want to. This is incredibly dangerous, because once a backdoor is created, anybody can force door open, not just the UK Government. Hackers, foreign governments, and other bad actors suddenly have a way into our data.

This poses huge threats to all of us, from the threat of having our personal images leaked or having financial documents fall into the wrong hands.

It would leave journalists, whistleblowers, political dissidents and even politicians extremely vulnerable and threaten their safety.

This happened recently in America – a backdoor was created into phone networks, and Chinese hackers exploited it in the Salt Typhoon hacks to get phone recordings from vice-president Kamala Harris’s staff, and even Donald Trump’s and JD Vance’s phone numbers.

WHAT ARE WE CALLING FOR?

We’re taking legal action against the Government alongside Privacy International, disputing the lawfulness, necessity and secrecy of the legal regime underpinning Technical Capability Notices in general.

A case management hearing is scheduled for September 2026 during which the management of Apple’s and our claims will be discussed.

The substantive hearing for our claim is currently listed for December 2026.