Wyden and Davidson to UK Spy Court: Let Apple Tell Congress About Reported UK Secret Demand for Encryption Backdoor

Wyden and Davidson to UK Spy Court: Let Apple Tell Congress About Reported UK Secret Demand for Encryption Backdoor

Bipartisan Members of Congress Warn the Secret Order Threatens UK-US Relationship; Weakening Encryption Puts Americans' Safety and US National Security at Risk

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, urged a U.K. court to lift the secrecy around a reported order from the U.K. government that Apple create a secret backdoor in its products to allow surveillance.

Wyden and Davidson urged the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which oversees government surveillance in the UK, to allow more transparency in the matter, in a letter sent today.

"The U.K. government's unprecedented demands for secrecy in this matter undermine democratic governance in both the United States and the U.K., and needlessly strain the relationship between our two nations," Wyden and Davidson wrote.

In their letter, Wyden and Davidson revealed that Apple informed Congress that it is challenging the U.K. government's authority to issue surveillance directives and that it was denied permission to discuss the issue in detail with both the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government. Apple informed congressional staff that the U.K. government granted the company permission to brief the U.S. Attorney General, the Vice President and key staffers, but blocked the company from discussing the issue in detail with Congress.

The U.K. has reportedly sought to weaken security features of Apple's iCloud service, which stores private messages, passwords, photos and other files, since last year. While the U.K. government's first order would have impacted American Apple users, it reportedly revised its request in response to pushback from the U.S. government, including a letter by Wyden and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., that warned of the risks to privacy and national security.

The full scope of the current request is unknown, both to the public and members of Congress, due to secrecy mandated by the U.K. government.

Wyden and Davidson echoed a warning from the prior Director of National Intelligence that secretly undermining encryption would leave individual Americans and our country at risk of hacks.

"Weakening encryption in consumer software introduces critical vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hostile foreign actors," the lawmakers wrote. "Congress cannot fulfill its constitutional duty to evaluate and mitigate these national security threats if foreign non-disclosure orders are weaponized to prevent U.S. technology companies from answering inquiries from duly elected lawmakers."

Wyden and Biggs previously urged the Investigative Powers Tribunal to provide more transparency about its surveillance orders, which observers have credited with influencing the court to release more information about its proceedings last year.

The full letter is available here.

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