In reaction to new measures that would increase the amount of digital surveillance that state intelligence agencies are allowed to conduct, Apple has issued a warning that it would prefer to discontinue providing iMessage and FaceTime services in the U.K. than give in to pressure from the government.
The iPhone manufacturer is the most recent to join the chorus of those protesting against upcoming legislative revisions to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 that will effectively render encryption protections worthless, according to the development, which was first reported by BBC News.
The Online Safety Bill specifically mandates that businesses implement technologies to check encrypted messaging apps and other services for information related to terrorism and child sex exploitation and abuse (CSEA). Additionally, it requires messaging services to check security features with the Home Office before releasing them and to act quickly to stop them if necessary without disclosing their existence to the general public.
Although the fact does not specifically call for the elimination of end-to-end encryption, it would nonetheless equate to its weakening since the service providers would have to examine all messages to identify and remove any that violated the law. This has been criticised as being a disproportionate action that enables mass surveillance and interception by the government.
Apple informed the British media outlet that such a clause would “constitute a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy.”
In an open letter published earlier this month, a number of messaging services that currently support encrypted chats, including Wire, Element, Signal, Threema, Viber, and the Meta-owned WhatsApp, urged the U.K. government to reconsider its position and “encourage companies to offer more privacy and security to its residents.”
The letter stated that the bill “provides no explicit protection for encryption and, if implemented as written, could empower OFCOM to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services, nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption and jeopardising the privacy of all users.”
Digital rights organisations opposed Apple’s intentions to identify potentially harmful and abusive content in iCloud Photos, and the company later abandoned them. They were concerned that the feature may be misused to compromise users’ privacy and security.
The conflict between end-to-end encryption and the requirement to combat major internet crimes has previously come up.
WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against the Indian government in May 2021 to prevent the government from enacting internet rules that would force the messaging service to disable encryption by implementing a traceability mechanism to locate the “first originator of information” or face incurring legal repercussions. The situation is still open.
In keeping with its public stance on privacy, which enables it to promote itself as a “privacy hero” among other businesses that thrive on gathering user data to serve targeted ads, Apple has refused to cooperate.
But it also seems hollow in light of the fact that SMS does not allow end-to-end encryption, making all messages transmitted to or received from non-Apple devices unencrypted and potentially vulnerable to government eavesdropping.