Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
www.bbc.com
Customers' photos and documents stored online will no longer be protected by end to end encryption.

BBC News - Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row

“In a statement Apple said it was “gravely disappointed” that the security feature would no longer be available to British customers.”

  • Red5@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    1 month ago

    This isn’t caving, is it? This is not making a backdoor.

    Arguably it is making a front door / cutting one’s nose to spite the face, but I don’t think it’s caving.

    • AnAmericanPotato@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      Apple has three realistic options:

      1. Submit to the UK’s demands and grant them a backdoor to encrypted backups.
      2. Disable encrypted backups in the UK.
      3. Leave the UK market entirely.

      They went with #2, which is probably the least user-hostile option available.

      From 1500GMT on Friday, any Apple user in the UK attempting to turn it on has been met with an error message.

      Existing users’ access will be disabled at a later date.

      I am very interested in seeing what the UX around this will be. Ideally, they should give users direct notice well in advance, so they have time to plan a migration or mitigation. Of course, Apple makes it basically impossible to perform a full backup through any mechanism except iCloud, so…one more example of how vendor lock-in is inherently a security and privacy risk.