Overview

• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said London agreed to abandon an order that would have compelled Apple to enable access to encrypted iCloud data after months of engagement with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
• The Home Office declined to confirm or deny the existence of any notice and pointed to longstanding US–UK safeguards, while the Financial Times reported the order had not yet been formally withdrawn.
• Apple disabled iCloud’s Advanced Data Protection for UK users in February in response to the reported mandate, and the company has not announced when the feature might return.
• Apple has filed a complaint at the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal challenging the legal basis for the order, with a hearing scheduled for early 2026, according to UK reporting.
• US officials previously warned the UK’s move could violate the CLOUD Act and privacy and security experts said any mandated backdoor would create exploitable vulnerabilities.