RIPA Request to Apple by UK

[Richie]

I was going to put this in the mobile phones forum but thought the extra exposure in here would be better.

Various sources saying that the UK Govt has demanded to be allowed access to the public's private encrypted data held in Apple's iCloud: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g288yldko

The news was first reported by the Washington Post, external quoting sources familiar with the matter, and the BBC has spoken to similar contacts.

Legally, the notice, served by the Home Office under the Investigatory Powers Act, cannot be made public, and Apple declined to comment.

The Home Office said: "We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices."
The notice applies to all content stored using Apple's Advanced Data Protection (ADP), which encrypts the data meaning that Apple itself cannot see it.

When you read further is appears that they are requesting back doors into their encryption.... Won;t take long for others to find and exploit said back doors for their own use.

 

[Richie]

Small bit from the WP article it references:

The British government’s undisclosed order, issued last month, requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account, and has no known precedent in major democracies.

WP Article

 

[Pez]

Questions:

1. Can Apple say no?
2. If no to the above, which cloud service can I put my data in where the government can't get at it? Or is this the time to self-host?

 

[Hades]

Questions:

1. Can Apple say no?
2. If no to the above, which cloud service can I put my data in where the government can't get at it? Or is this the time to self-host?

It can appeal but must implement it during the appeal.

The tech giant can appeal against the government's demand but cannot delay implementing the ruling during the process even if it is eventually overturned, according to the legislation.

I use a combination of Proton Drive (Proton is outside of the nine eyes countries) and self hosting my own Nextcloud.

EDIT: Also, you can almost guarantee that same UK demand has probably gone to the other major cloud storage providers such as Microsoft, Dropbox, Amazon, etc, etc, at the same time. Apple won't have been singled out. Apple are simply the company that has been leaked. In fact it's not legal to tell people that a request has been made. If you use any of these then expect your privacy to be compromised. It's shameful that this (or any) government are doing this. I'll stop at that comment because I appreciate political comment isn't allowed outside of the closed Speakers Corner.

Legally, the notice, served by the Home Office under the Investigatory Powers Act, cannot be made public, and Apple declined to comment.

 

[jpaul]

Small bit from the WP article it references:

WP Article

but they/govt still have to make requests for individual people (but now would know they could be satisfied)

people are kidding themselves if they don't believe zero-day exploits couldn't be put on their phone anyway, like the likes of Israeli pegasus s/w (kershoggi)
but starmer needs to smash them gangs (or have a plausible excuse)

 

[Richie]

but they/govt still have to make requests for individual people (but now would know they could be satisfied)

Perhaps. The main issue though is not just authority over-reach but once you put backdoors into things like this, they can be exploited by criminals. If no backdoor exists, it cannot be exploited.

 

[robj20]

Just self host. Plenty of good value NAS devices that make it so easy.