Security News > 2023 > July > Apple Threatens to Pull iMessage and FaceTime from U.K. Amid Surveillance Demands

Apple has warned that it would rather stop offering iMessage and FaceTime services in the U.K. than bowing down to government pressure in response to new proposals that seek to expand digital surveillance powers available to state intelligence agencies.

Specifically, the Online Safety Bill requires companies to install technology to scan for child sex exploitation and abuse material and terrorism content in encrypted messaging apps and other services.

While the fact does not explicitly call out for the removal of end-to-end encryption, it would de facto amount to weakening it as the companies offering the services would have to scan all messages to flag and take them down.

Apple told the British broadcaster that such a provision would "Constitute a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy."

"The Bill provides no explicit protection for encryption, and if implemented as written, could empower OFCOM to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services - nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users," the letter read. Apple, which previously announced its own plans to flag potentially problematic and abusive content in iCloud Photos, abandoned it last year after receiving pushback from digital rights groups over worries that the capability could be abused to undermine users' privacy and security.

In May 2021, WhatsApp sued the Indian government to block internet regulations that would compel the messaging app to break encryption by incorporating a traceability mechanism to identify the "First originator of information" or risk facing criminal penalties.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/07/apple-threatens-to-pull-imessage-and.html