Britain has abandoned its push to force Apple to create a “backdoor” into its encrypted services, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Monday, saying the measure would have granted access to the protected data of American citizens.
In a statement on X, Gabbard said she had worked for months with Britain, alongside President Trump and Vice President JD Vance, to secure the agreement.
The dispute over Apple began in February when the company disabled its Advanced Data Protection feature for British users after the U.K. ordered it to build a backdoor into encrypted data. Apple, which has insisted it would never create such access, challenged the order at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. Critics in the U.S. warned the mandate could empower hackers and authoritarian governments to exploit the system.
Earlier this year, U.S. officials questioned whether the British demand breached the CLOUD Act, which prohibits either country from requiring access to the data of the other’s citizens. In a February 25 letter to Congress, Gabbard said the matter was under review.
