A White House security official has warned that the British government’s renewed attempt to obtain access to encrypted Apple data could be used to spy on Trump administration officials and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
The warning came in a message sent by the official to a colleague in September: “The UK is making another attempt to put a backdoor on iCloud. This time by their secret court. They’re going to lean on a court order to justify it. They will use this back door to spy on the administration and Nigel Farage.”
This message documents internal U.S. administration concerns, though it does not establish that British authorities have yet conducted such surveillance.
Britain initially sought access to Apple customers’ encrypted cloud backups under the Investigatory Powers Act before American pressure forced the withdrawal of that demand. The Home Office subsequently reissued an order covering UK users, with the precise scope remaining obscured by secrecy.
The concern extends beyond Republicans. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Representative Warren Davidson announced a joint intervention on September 11, seeking greater transparency from Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal. Their letter states Apple was permitted to brief senior executive officials but prevented from discussing the matter in detail with Congress.
Apple confirms that new UK users can no longer enable Advanced Data Protection, which affects encryption for cloud backups, photos, and notes. iMessage and FaceTime remain end-to-end encrypted, as do categories protected by default. The company maintains it has never built a backdoor.
