U.K. kicks Apple’s door open for China
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The U.K. has ordered Apple to build a backdoor that would allow the British government to download and read the private encrypted data of any iPhone user anywhere in the world.
This would be a massive downgrade in the security features that protect the privacy of billions of people and that made Apple one of the world’s most valuable companies. Congress must immediately enact a law prohibiting American tech companies from providing encryption backdoors to any country. This would create a “conflict of laws" situation, allowing Apple to fight this order in U.K.
courts and protect Americans’ safety and security. The U.K. government’s demand comes at a peak of global cyber conflict.
Hackers from Russia continue to run roughshod over businesses, demanding millions of dollars in ransom to return access to computers and data. The Chinese Ministry of State Security successfully hacked most major U.S. telecom providers and the U.S.
Treasury. They even targeted Mr. Trump and the Kamala Harris campaign.
Following these attacks on our national security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reversed its hostility toward end-to-end encryption and recommended that Americans use encrypted message applications to protect themselves against foreign adversaries. The U.K. law, colloquially known as the “snooper’s charter," grants the British government unprecedented power to compel tech companies to weaken the security of the devices Americans use every day.
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