Apple removes its most advanced data protection tool as UK demands access to user data

The feature covers iCloud data storage, device backups, web bookmarks, voice memos, notes, photos, reminders and text message backups. Such data, once covered by Advanced Data Protection, cannot be viewed even by Apple.

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“We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” the company said in a statement.

The move of the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalisation comes weeks after reports surfaced saying the UK government had ordered Apple to give it access to customer data globally.

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Apple previously called a bill from the UK Parliament that sought access to user data “unprecedented overreach by the government.” At the time, the company said that “the UK could attempt to secretly veto new user protections globally preventing us from ever offering them to customers”, Bloomberg reported.

Apple on Friday said that “enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before” and that it “remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom.”

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The move to pull its most secure encryption technology in the region appears to be an effort from the iPhone maker to appease UK regulators, though it’s plausible the government will determine the company isn’t going far enough. “As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will,” Apple said.