Key Takeaways
- Apple filed a fresh legal complaint with the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal last month, challenging a renewed order demanding access to encrypted iCloud data, MacRumors reported.
- The case targets a revised technical capability notice from the Home Office, now limited to UK users after the original UK-and-US demand was dropped in 2025.
- The Guardian reports the challenge could become a major legal test of the Investigatory Powers Act’s provisions compelling firms to maintain access to encrypted material.
- Apple withdrew Advanced Data Protection for UK users in February 2025 rather than comply with the original order, with a public hearing expected later this year.
Apple has gone back to court in Britain, filing a fresh legal challenge against a government order demanding access to its encrypted iCloud data.
The legal complaint, filed last month, targets a revised Home Office notice limited to UK users after an earlier, wider request sparked a diplomatic dispute with Washington.
It marks the latest round in a running fight over whether encrypted personal data should ever be accessible to government agencies.
A Long-Running Fight Over Encrypted iCloud Data
The dispute began with a Technical Capability Notice under the Investigatory Powers Act, which sought access to encrypted data from UK and US users.
Instead of providing that access, Apple removed Advanced Data Protection, its end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups, photos, and notes, for UK users in February 2025, rather than build in the access ministers demanded.
According to MacRumors, the Home Office later dropped the wider request after a diplomatic dispute with Washington and issued a new notice covering only UK users, a retreat that echoes the government’s own struggles safeguarding sensitive data.
It’s that revised order Apple is now contesting, continuing a standoff that began when Apple refused to build what it has repeatedly called a “backdoor or master key” into its products.
What the Investigatory Powers Tribunal Will Decide
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which handles complaints against the UK’s security and intelligence agencies, is reviewing the case.
The Guardian said it is one of the first major tests of the Act’s powers allowing ministers to require technology firms to provide access to encrypted data, an effort similar to the device scanning rules that drew Signal’s fierce pushback.
The tribunal can cancel the notice if it rules it unlawful, and the case is being heard mostly in secret because companies are legally barred from confirming these notices.
However, the tribunal has asked Apple and the Home Office to agree on facts that can be discussed publicly.
Apple isn’t alone either: campaign groups Privacy International and Liberty have lodged separate challenges at the same tribunal.
Part of a Wider Standoff Over Data and Surveillance
The clash lands amid a broader UK reckoning over how far government should be able to reach into private data, and it’s not the only fight Apple is waging with British regulators right now.
The company is simultaneously contesting proposed App Store steering rules put forward by the Competition and Markets Authority, leaving it pushing back against UK authority on two fronts at once.
The Home Office has so far declined to comment on specifics, maintaining its standard policy of neither confirming nor denying individual notices.
Source: Apple launches legal challenge to UK attempt to access encrypted user data
