The proposal to tune UK’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016 drew strong criticism from Apple, as the Cupertino-based company warned to withdraw it’s communication apps if the planned changes occur.
Apple said the modified act would effectively allow the UK government to break it’s security features in FaceTime and iMessage – and spy on the users’ communications without letting them know. Earlier, these actions required extensive reviews and appeals.
Making an Official Way to Spy
This week, the UK government made proposals to change some laws in the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 – that would force the messaging services to get approval for adding any new security features and disable them when ordered to do so immediately and without informing the public!
Currently, the companies can wait until a review of the request is made and any appeal has been heard. Though it’s intriguing, the government is backing up it’s amendments to safeguard children from sexual abuse materials and to curtail communications between terrorists.
Though it’s reasonable at times, Apple wasn’t convinced enough to let that happen, as it sent the UK government a criticising statement of the planned proposals. Calling them deeply problematic, Apple said;
“By requiring non-U.K. technology companies to maintain the ability to produce unencrypted data for all of their users worldwide—without notifying their users of that ability—the IPA would include a worldwide gag order.”
The company has also told the BBC that if the UK government plans to go ahead with it’s proposals, it could pull it’s encrypted messaging services like FaceTime and iMessage from the U.K. altogether! The government says this is still in the proposal form and shall decide after an eight-week consultation.
This new rule will only escalate the current stakes between Apple and UK, where the Cupertino-based company has earlier objected to the Online Safety Bill too. The final result could be interesting, as the regulator may face massive criticism from the OEMs and the public for tinkering with an essential service.
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