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Will the sun ever rise again on the British Empire? Probably not, but not for lack of trying.
Apple, which has a slightly better reputation for protecting its users’ data than other companies, has partially caved to the UK’s demand to end cloud encryption. Earlier in the month, the UK’s Home Office invoked its 2016 Investigatory Powers Act to get Apple to surrender access to its end-to-end encrypted data that users uploaded to the cloud.
AstheBBCnotes,Appleitselfdoesnotevenhavetheabilitytoseethatdata,whichisreferredtoasAdvancedDataProtection,orADP.TheUKwantedaccesstothedatafromusersacrosstheglobe.TheoutletreportsthatApplehaspartiallyacquiesced.ItdecidedthatADPwouldnolongerbeabletobeactivatedwithintheUK.Ifonetriestoturniton,onegetsanerrormessage,andresidentswhocurrentlyuseADPwillhavetheservicedeactivatedatalaterdate.
Standardencryptionisstillavailable,butlawenforcementcanaccessitwithawarrant.ProponentsofthemovesayitwillbeaboonforchildsafetysinceADPcouldbeusedtostashchildsexualabusematerialorinformationabouttrafficking.TheBBCrepo
