Apple has launched a legal fight against the UK government which is demanding that the company give it access to its encrypted iCloud files.

The company has appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent judicial body that scrutinises complaints against the UK security services, reported the Financial Times.

The government’s request allows security services to obtain a warrant from a judge and then tap iPhone back-ups and cloud data, including information that it otherwise inaccessible even to Apple.

“The suggestion that privacy and security are at odds is not correct; we can and must have both. The Investigatory Powers Act contains robust safeguards and independent oversight to protect privacy and ensure that data is obtained only on an exceptional basis, and only when it is necessary and proportionate to do so,” UK security minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons.

 

Apple was served a “technical capability notice” under the act earlier this year. The order targets Advanced Data Protection, an optional encryption layer protecting its iCloud system,.

Apple withdrew its most secure online back-up service from the UK, rather than being forced to comply with the order.

It is now challenging the very fundamentals of the act and it is the first time, as far as the public is aware, that the act is being challenged in court.

 

While the case could be heard before the tribunal as early as this month, there may not be any public disclosure regarding the hearing as the government may treat the entire hearing as one that concerns its national security.

Complicating the matter further is that the Trump administration is backing up Apple’s claims. The US President reported compared the UK’s demand to that of Chinese surveillance. The US director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said tapping Americans’ data would be an “egregious violation” of privacy and risked breaching the two countries’ data agreement.

Last month, when Apple announced it could “no longer offer” iCloud ADP in the UK, it said: “As we have said many times before, we have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”