Apple's Privacy Fight With the UK Needs to Play Out in Public

Let's hear about London's 'Snooper's Charter' backdoor demands

- Parmy Olson

You can't blame Tulsi Gabbard for trying. The US director of national intelligence announced last week that Britain was finally backing down on its outrageous demand that Apple give it a backdoor to user data. That would seem like a win for US tech giants and privacy advocates, but it's not so simple. Even if the UK government does drop its request, it can still issue other "technical capability notices" demanding tech firms share information about their users, which firms are not allowed to say they've received.

The real problem is bad privacy legislation in the UK, and the best way to solve it isn't through political meddling, but in court. Gabbard's pronouncement on X seems good on its face. It followed extensive negotiations with British officials, but it may make a much-needed change to the law less likely.

The UK issued the order in early 2025, arguing that snooping on citizens' private data was a price worth paying to catch criminals. It is not. Such backdoors threaten the privacy of citizens and treat them like automatic suspects. Mass surveillance does not necessarily prevent serious crime either. Apple launched a legal challenge in March, saying the demands went too far and that it needed to maintain strong encryption to protect user privacy. The company has its own financial reasons, of course, with security being a cornerstone of Apple's marketing strategy.