Overview

• Apple has withdrawn its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature in the UK, which provided end-to-end encryption for iCloud data, following a government order under the Investigatory Powers Act.
• The UK government requested a backdoor to access encrypted data, but Apple refused, citing security risks and the potential for misuse by bad actors.
• UK users who previously enabled ADP must manually disable it to retain their iCloud accounts, as Apple cannot deactivate the feature on their behalf.
• While some iCloud data categories remain end-to-end encrypted, such as health data and iMessage, the removal of ADP reduces overall security for UK users.
• Privacy advocates warn this move could set a precedent for other governments to demand similar compromises, potentially impacting global user data security.