Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, has announced that Britain has dropped its demand for Apple to provide a “backdoor” that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens.
Gabbard issued this statement on the social media platform X on Monday, saying she had worked for months with Britain, along with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, to reach this agreement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in Washington on Monday along with other European leaders to meet Trump and discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the British government stated on Tuesday that while they would not comment on any specific agreement, Britain has long worked with the U.S. to tackle security threats while seeking to protect the privacy of citizens in both countries.
U.S. lawmakers had said in May that the UK’s order to Apple to create a backdoor to its encrypted user data could be exploited by cybercriminals and authoritarian governments.
Apple, which had stated it would never build such access into its encrypted services or devices, had challenged the order at the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
The iPhone maker had withdrawn its Advanced Data Protection feature for British users in February following the UK order.
