A little less than two weeks ago I wrote about the UK’s Quixotic efforts to get a back door into Apple’s end-to-end encryption for all users worldwide. They issued a secret order—immediately revealed, of course—ordering Apple to let them spy on any user anywhere.
Apple has finally responded. They simply—without further comment—stopped supplying end-to-end encryption to UK citizens. It’s a pretty good move. UK citizens left without protection can make their displeasure known to the government at the polls. Regardless, Apple has essentially told the UK to go pound sand.
To be clear, I have nothing but good feelings for Britain and its citizens—they are, after all, often described as “cousins” of those of us in the U.S.—but I’m definitely not a fan of this overreaching effort to reinstate Rule Britanica! by telling the rest of the world what to do.
Daring Fireball has a great summary of the conflict as it stands now. Gruber explains Apple’s actions and their lack of comment on why they’re making them. I definitely recommend that you read it if you want to understand what’s going on.
The BBC also has an article on the controvery. They take a more global view of the conflict. It makes a couple of good points. One security expert is concerned that Apple’s move sets a precedent for other companies to simply withdraw from a market rather than cooperate with its government. There are, of course, appeals to “think of the children”. My response to that is that those governments should stop trying to spy on the whole world and ordering foreign companies to help them.
The other interesting development is that even the U.S. Congress is not amused. There are already bills being introduced to end UK/U.S. intelligence cooperation if the order is not withdrawn. I don’t know what’s going to happen with them but as I said in my original post, other governments are going to find it hard not t take the side of their citizens no matter how much they’d like to have the same capability.