FAIL, BRITANNIA: Apple turns off data protection in the UK rather than comply with backdoor mandate.

In 2024, the UK revamped its UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 to give itself the authority to legally — and secretly — compel Apple to break the end-to-end encryption that its security and privacy depends on. Despite bipartisan protests from the US, the UK issued the order and Apple cannot continue to operate its end-to-end encryption without breaking the law.

Instead of allowing the UK backdoor access to encrypted data, however, Apple has announced that it is switching off the encryption. This technically complies with the law, but means Apple does not create a backdoor that the UK or other bad actors could use.

Compliance would have meant giving UK authorities a backdoor into any iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world.