UK drops Apple data demand after pressure from Trump administration

JD Vance played a key role in the negotiations

The UK has retreated from its controversial push to force Apple to create a "back door" into encrypted customer data.

The US president had previously denounced the demand, likening it to Chinese-style surveillance.

"I'm happy to share that the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a 'back door' that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties," Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, told the Financial Times.

Vice-president JD Vance played a key role in the negotiations, according to US officials.

Vance intervened directly to ensure that Britain withdrew its January order, issued under the UK's Investigatory Powers Act, which sought to force Apple to unlock encrypted data stored on its iCloud system.

Apple has consistently resisted such demands, saying it is technically incapable of accessing customer data that is end-to-end encrypted.

Although the order has not yet been formally withdrawn, three British officials told the FT that the clash with Washington was now resolved after recent meetings with senior US figures, including Vance.

One UK official described the issue as "settled," another said London had "caved" to US pressure, and a third insisted that "we can't and we won't" force Apple to break its encryption.

It is still uncertain whether the UK will submit a revised notice to Apple with altered terms aimed at excluding US citizens' data. However, a source close to the Trump administration warned that doing so would breach the spirit of the deal, arguing that any form of back door would ultimately erode protections for Americans.

The dispute sparked the most high-profile encryption battle in almost a decade. The UK's notice to Apple, however, remains cloaked in secrecy, with both sides legally barred from discussing its details under British law.

In February, Apple withdrew its most secure cloud storage option - iCloud Advanced Data Protection - from the UK.

The company said at the time that it had never created a back door for any of its products and would never do that in future.

Apple has also filed a complaint with the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal over the demand, with a case due to be heard early next year.

"Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end-encryption is more urgent than ever before," the iPhone maker said in February.

"Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in future in the UK."

The Investigatory Powers Act, sometimes labelled a "snooper's charter" by critics, gives British authorities broad extraterritorial reach to demand access to data held by tech companies worldwide, including in the US.

The government defends the law as a vital tool against terrorism and child sexual abuse.

The Home Office has neither confirmed nor denied issuing the Apple order but stressed that joint UK-US security cooperation includes safeguards to protect privacy and sovereignty. It cited a bilateral Data Access Agreement, which allows law enforcement in each country to request information from telecom providers in the other jurisdiction.