Gabbard Decries Britain's Reported Demand For Apple To Provide Backdoor Access To Users' Cloud Data

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says she has serious concerns about the British government's reported demand that Apple provide backdoor access to any data stored in the cloud.

In a written response to members of Congress , Gabbard said this week that such a demand would violate Americans' rights and raise concerns about a foreign government pressuring a U.S.-based technology company.

"This would be a clear and egregious violation of Americans' privacy and civil liberties," Gabbard told Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who had written to express their worries.

Apple announced last week that it would stop offering an advanced data security option for British users. In a secret order, British security officials demanded that the U.S. tech giant create so-called backdoor access so that they could view fully encrypted material, The Washington Post reported this month, citing anonymous sources.

Advanced Data Protection, which Apple started rolling out at the end of 2022, is an opt-in feature that protects iCloud files, photos, notes and other data with end-to-end encryption when they're stored in the cloud.