Privacy and free expression groups urge tribunal to make Apple encryption hearing public

Rights groups call for Apple’s closed appeal against the Home Office’s encryption-breaching order to be opened to the public

Responding to news that Apple will be before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Friday, representatives from Big Brother Watch, Index on Censorship, and Open Rights Group have written to President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the Rt Hon Lord Justice Singh, calling for the case to be made public.

The letter states that the “case implicates the privacy rights of millions of British citizens who use Apple’s technology, as well as Apple’s international users”. The groups note the “significant public interest in knowing when and on what basis the UK government believes that it can compel a private company to undermine the privacy and security of its customers.”

According to widespread media reporting, the Home Office has served Apple with a Technical Capability Notice under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The Technical Capability Notice would force the company to build a backdoor into their end-to-end encrypted iCloud services. The company has previously stated it would “never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products, and we never will”. In response to the Home Office’s demands, Apple has withdrawn its end-to-end encrypted Advanced Data Protection tool from UK users.

COMMENTS

Big Brother Watch Interim Director Rebecca Vincent: “The Home Office’s shocking order to Apple to break encryption represents a huge attack on privacy rights and is unprecedented in any democracy. This Tribunal will determine whether the UK government can proceed in forcing access to all of our data – a matter of high public interest that must not take place in secret.”

Index on Censorship CEO Jemimah Steinfeld: “From the moment the Apple news broke to tomorrow’s Tribunal, everything about this story has been shrouded in secrecy. This has to end. Breaking encryption would do away with our rights to privacy, would make us far less safe and secure online and would challenge the very notion of the UK as a democracy. With such high stakes we demand to know what could possibly justify this. We need answers, not more secrecy.”

Open Rights Group Executive Director Jim Killock: “Holding this Tribunal in secret would be an affront to the global privacy and security issues that are being discussed. This is bigger than just the UK, or Apple. But most importantly, if the UK wants to claim the right to make all of Apple’s users more likely to be hacked and blackmailed, then they should argue for that in an open court.”

NOTES

The letter can be found here.
Spokespeople are available for interview – please contact 07730439257 or [email protected]

ENDS

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