UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal is facing more pressure to lift the secrecy provisions around the Home Office’s order to build an encryption backdoor into Apple’s iCloud Advanced Data Protection.
The key demand is to make the secret order (Technical Capability Notice, TNC), as well as the hearings stemming from it public – considering the extent of the public interest regarding this instance of government-forced encryption weakening.
A hearing on the issue took place today, with no details being shared with the public.
A group of Democrat and Republican members of the US Senate and the House have penned a letter asking for an end to “secrecy” surrounding the huge controversy.
Although the order itself prohibits Apple from even confirming that the company received the TNC, it has become public knowledge that this happened, that encryption protections for UK users have already been removed, and that the tech giant is attempting to reverse this in closed-door proceedings before the Tribunal.
Members of Congress want to see transparency around this Friday’s hearing and all subsequent hearings in the UK, in Apple’s case or that affecting any other US company.
“Secret court hearings featuring intelligence agencies and a handful of individuals approved by them do not enable robust challenges on highly technical matters,” the letter states.
This is negatively impacting the ability of Congress to carry out oversight, and threatens Americans’ security and privacy, the US lawmakers say.
In the UK itself, privacy and free speech campaigners, as well as some politicians and parties have spoken out against the government’s actions.
“If the Home Office wants to have effectively unfettered access to the private data of the general public, they should explain their case in front of the public,” Conservative MP Sir David Davis said.
Similar sentiments are being voiced by representatives of Liberal Democrats and Reform UK. Meanwhile, Big Brother Watch, Index on Censorship, and Open Rights Group also wrote to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and its president, Lord Justice Rabinder Singh, asking for the case involving Apple to be made public.
According to the letter, it “implicates the privacy rights of millions of British citizens who use Apple’s technology, as well as Apple’s international users” – meaning that an issue of such significant public interest must not be dealt with in secret.
Privacy International has gone a step further and filed a complaint against the use of the secret TNC orders, described by the group as “dangerous, disproportionate and intrusive surveillance powers” that “undermine the privacy and security of people all over the world.”
