Senator warns of latest UK surveillance dangers to US residents following Apple ‘again door’ row
Senator Ron Wyden has written to the US director of Nationwide Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard urging her to supply Congress and the American public with a “frank evaluation” of the safety dangers posed by UK surveillance to the US.
The letter, which follows disclosures that the House Workplace has issued a secret discover to Apple to realize entry to its customers’ encrypted information, raises new issues that the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act could enable the UK a lot wider entry to information on US residents than beforehand reported.
Android telephones could have ‘backdoors’
In a letter to Gabbard yesterday, Wyden claims that the House Workplace could have issued a secret order in opposition to Google to introduce “backdoors” to the encrypted back-up service utilized by billions of Android telephone customers worldwide.
The letter additionally raises questions on House Workplace powers within the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 to concern orders to secretly drive US corporations to retailer information belonging to US residents within the UK “the place it might be then seized by the US authorities.”
Wyden’s intervention comes as president Trump, who has criticised the House Workplace’s order in opposition to Apple as one thing China can be anticipated to do, met with prime minister Keir Starmer, at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
Wyden and Republican Congressman Andy Biggs first wrote to Gabbard in February 2025, after a leak in The Washington Submit revealed that the House Secretary Yvette Cooper, had issued a order, referred to as a Technical Functionality Discover (TCN) in opposition to Apple, requiring it to introduce ‘backdoor’ entry to customers’ dater saved on its superior encrypted storage service.
Gabbard instructed the lawmakers that she shared their “grave concern” concerning the UK ordering US corporations to create ‘backdoors’ that might enable entry to encrypted information of US residents. Such a transfer would “be a transparent and egregious violation of American citizen’s privateness and civil liberties” and would create cyber vulnerabilities that might be exploited by hostile actors, she added.
Wyden states within the letter that corporations that obtain orders underneath the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 are legally prohibited from disclosing their existence, making it not possible to substantiate which US expertise corporations have acquired orders from the UK, “a lot much less the extent to which they could be complying with them”.
Apple’s Advance Information Safety service is disabled by default, making it doubtless that solely a “very small” proportion of Apple’s clients “benefiting from this vital cyber safety defence” can be impacted by a House Workplace order.
Nevertheless, Wyden raised the prospect that the House Workplace has additionally issued an order requiring Google, to supply ‘backdoor’ entry to encrypted back-ups made by billions of Android sensible telephone customers that are protected by end-to-end encryption by default.
“When my workplace requested Google about backdoor calls for from the UK, the corporate didn’t reply the query, solely stating that if it had acquired a technical capabilities discover, it will be prohibited from disclosing that reality,” Wyden wrote.
That is in distinction to Meta, which supplied Wyden an “unequivocal denial” stating that “now we have not acquired an order to backdoor our encrypted companies, like that reported about Apple” when requested the identical query on 17 March 2025.
House workplace hacking powers may impression US
Wyden has raised additional issues that the menace to US information posed by UK surveillance legal guidelines isn’t restricted to demanding that US corporations weaken their encryption with again doorways.
The British Embassy in Washington has not denied claims that the UK may use the IPA to drive US corporations to retailer newly created US buyer information within the UK. “Such UK-located information may then be seized by the UK authorities,” he added.
He has additionally raised issues that UK can use the Tools Interference (hacking) provisions within the IPA to demand that corporations “infect their clients with spy ware to hack People” – a functionality which the British Embassy in Washington has once more not denied.
“The cyber safety of American’s communications and digital lives should be defended in opposition to international threats,” Wyden instructed Gabbard. “The nationwide safety implications are critical, not least as a result of the communications of US authorities officers might be topic to each weakened encryption and storage within the UK,” he mentioned.
Commenting on Wyden’s letter, Jim Killock, Govt Director of Open Rights Group, which is campaigning in opposition to the House Workplace’s strikes in opposition to encryption, mentioned that the House Workplace’s orders impression the safety of individuals worldwide
“Google’s refusals to reply Senator Wyden is extraordinarily worrying for Android customers who depend on encryption for his or her privateness and safety,” he added.
