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Donald Trump has lashed out at the UK’s demand for Apple to grant secret access to its most secure cloud storage system, comparing the move to “something . . . that you hear about with China”.
In an interview with the Spectator magazine following his meeting with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer this week, the US president said he told him: “You can’t do this.”
The comments come a week after Apple withdrew its Advanced Data Protection system for iCloud in the UK rather than comply with a legal demand to build in a “back door” or vulnerability that would allow law enforcement or security services to tap into the system.
Apple received a “technical capability notice” under the UK Investigatory Powers Act last month, demanding it create a way to tap encrypted data stored in the cloud that even Apple itself is otherwise unable to access. The law prevents companies that receive such a notice from publicly discussing the order.
“We told them: you can’t do this,” Trump told the Spectator in an interview published on Friday. “We actually told [Starmer] . . . that’s incredible. That’s something, you know, that you hear about with China.”
A Downing Street spokesperson said it would not comment on the specifics of the Apple case but said “we have a close intelligence relationship with the US and we take the partnership seriously”.
Earlier this week, Tulsi Gabbard, US director of national intelligence, said any move to force Apple to build a back door into its systems would cause “grave concern” as an “egregious violation” of Americans’ privacy. Gabbard said she had ordered lawyers and intelligence officials to investigate the matter.
The IPA was updated last year with new powers to force companies to break the encryption that secures their services in order to facilitate criminal or national security investigations. The powers can be used to gain access to encrypted data from people anywhere in the world, a point of particular concern in the US.
The IPA has been dubbed the “Snooper’s Charter” by critics. However, the UK government believes the powers are necessary to investigate extreme cases such as terrorism and child sexual abuse, at a time when more consumer technology services are protected by end-to-end encryption.
This week’s meeting between Starmer and Trump was otherwise seen as positive and convivial, as the leaders said they were working on a trade deal that could help the UK avoid the tariffs that Washington has imposed on several other countries.
