Curious what happens if you were someone who had opted in to ADP. If your data is fully encrypted, do you just get to keep using it that way? Does this only impact new users? Or, is Apple going to somehow capture users encryption keys and revert ADP?
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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The BBC article clarifies (not sure if NYT does as well, I can't read it)
Users will have a grace period to opt out of encryption before their data is deleted. Apple states they do not have the ability to automatically unencrypt the data.
Apple Caved. I'm no apple fan but what exactly would not caving have been here? Make the backdoor? Pull out of the UK ? Fund an expensive legal battle against the laws of a democratically elected government?
Apple did not cave
caving would've been to build the backdoor
End to end encryption is MEANINGLESS if someone else also has a key
They removed a feature in the region to avoid setting a precedent that they would backdoor their feature on the whims of a shitty government
Now Apple gets to tell the UK that they would love to give fully encrypted backups but the UK government does not like encryption and security
yeah I admit 'apple caved' was kinda just a gut reaction 'apple bad - encrypted backup good'.
If they fully caved we likely wouldn't have known about it, they'd have just put in a backdoor and given themselves and/or the uk encryption keys. Denying encrypted backups because of this is probably best.
You could argue apple does have the resources for a a legal battle, but you also can't really expect them to do that. They're not liberty or big brother watch. I doubt that would go well in domestic courts anyway, after that, the ECHR could be sympathetic on proportionallity & art.8 grounds but its a lot of effort.
maybe I should edit the title?
I would leave the title. It's important that people be critical but willing to adjust opinion.
Apple has fought these in the past (San Bernardino shooting / Phone unlock). It is honestly best for them to never take a case on this issue that they could lose.
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That’s not caving. That’s standing up and saying fuck you, your people don’t matter as much as the rest of the world because you’re lunatics.
yea, its a blow to uk user's privacy & security but not caving. Caving would be implimenting a backdoor. Title was a bit of an annoyed initial reaction, sorry there... maybe best to improve it, i'm not sure?
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The UK government's obsession with being a Big Brother is so damn frustrating. A preview of what other governments will try and become in the near future, unfortunately.
WE ARE FUCKED
This isn’t caving, is it? This is not making a backdoor.
Arguably it is making a front door / cutting one’s nose to spite the face, but I don’t think it’s caving.
Apple has three realistic options:
- Submit to the UK's demands and grant them a backdoor to encrypted backups.
- Disable encrypted backups in the UK.
- Leave the UK market entirely.
They went with #2, which is probably the least user-hostile option available.
From 1500GMT on Friday, any Apple user in the UK attempting to turn it on has been met with an error message.
Existing users' access will be disabled at a later date.
I am very interested in seeing what the UX around this will be. Ideally, they should give users direct notice well in advance, so they have time to plan a migration or mitigation. Of course, Apple makes it basically impossible to perform a full backup through any mechanism except iCloud, so......one more example of how vendor lock-in is inherently a security and privacy risk.
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