UK says ‘no’ to backdoors, but the government isn’t listening

29/08 18:15 - UK says ‘no’ to backdoors, but the government isn’t listening
It doesn’t matter what the UK government says, the majority of the UK public is reluctant to hand over additional surveillance powers that require tech companies to build backdoors to access encrypted communications. That’s based on a poll release Thursday by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a US-based advocacy group. UK officials still want to wreck encryption The poll comes as the UK government renews its attempts to pursue a top secret order to force Apple to build a backdoor into iCloud encryption, even if doing so will make people less safe. There’s little doubt any state-mandated backdoor would be found and exploited by today’s new generation of AI-augmented hacking systems.  The government should know this, but seems resistant to reality — though it did revise its approach to taking this action under pressure from the US. This new version targets “only” UK citizens. What makes it worse is the underhand way the UK attempted to put these new rules in place. While we know Apple ceased offering Advanced Data Protection in the UK in response to these demands in 2025 — and opposed the demands at the time — we don’t know what arguments were made. The US said last year the order was being dropped, but Apple is now returning to court to fight a renewed attempt.  When the government issued the euphemistically-named “Technical Capability Notice” to Apple requiring backdoor access to encrypted iCloud data, it not only prohibited Apple from disclosing the order, but “most of the British public (55%) were unaware it had happened at all.” That’s because the UK kept it all out of sight. Privacy International and Liberty are also challenging the use of Technical Capability Notices. The UK public does not agree with its leaders CDT polled 2,000 people in the UK to find out if they supported the government’s efforts to quash encryption with dangerous backdoors. Just 12% of respondents agreed the government should have the power to access private data; the vast majority opposed the idea. The nature of the government’s approach is that UK citizens will not be told if they’re being subjected to surveillance. That really offends people, the survey says; 87% think the government should be legally obliged to tell people when their private conversations have been reviewed.  “The British public instinctively know that being able to communicate privately is crucial to our individuality and to the survival of a free and open society,” said Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group. “The government persists with the myth that it can weaken encryption to target the bad guys only. Attacks on the security of our phones, security tools and messaging apps harm us all and make our democracy weaker.” The poll reveals a lot more. People in the UK overwhelmingly believe they have the right to private conversations online and that no one should be able to access their personal messages without a court order and user notice. They also want meaningful constraints on use of these surveillance powers and also believe — rightly — that the security risks of backdoors far outweigh any benefits.  There’s also a significant concern about the impact of encryption erosion on free speech and personal privacy. “The vast majority of the British public believe there are better ways to tackle serious crimes than accessing encrypted messages” CDT argued. The devil in the government plan relates to encryption.  Encryption cannot be selectively weak This is fundamental to internet communications, and a lack of secure encryption threatens all kinds of online data communication. It’s not just email; banking, finance, and everything else all rely on encryption. Any move to weaken it anywhere in the stack will weaken it everywhere else. That’s bad for people, bad for free speech, and bad for business. Alan Woodward, visiting professor at Surrey Center for Cyber Security at the University of Surrey stressed, “Encryption keeps our bank details, medical records and family conversations safe. It cannot be weakened for criminals without being weakened for everyone. Private communication is not a luxury. It is a condition of a thriving democracy.”  Paul Strasburger, chair of Big Brother Watch, agrees: “Strong encryption is essential to protect our data and our commerce from attack by organized crime and rogue states,” he told the government last year during a debate on the matter in the House of Lords. “Any weakness inserted into encryption for the benefit of the authorities is also available to those who would do us harm — yet that is precisely what the government are demanding from Apple.” No one wants this What’s also interesting about the poll is that opposition to the UK government plans comes from across the political divide. “The public are not naive about online crime, but Green, Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats, and Reform voters alike simply do not accept that accessing everyone’s private messages is the way to stop it,” said Carly Munnelly, director at Public First. That’s because in an accelerated, AI-augmented modern digital threat environment, no one is safe until everyone is safe. The data suggests that people in the UK recognize this. The government, meanwhile, continues to avoid meaningful public scrutiny on what it’s doing by refusing to confirm or deny that any such order exists.  You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon and subscribe to The Core. ...