Privacy International🚨 Yesterday Apple responded to a massive secret government power, removing data security options for millions of people. We think. We don't know - because it’s a secret power in law that shouldn’t have ever existed. https://pvcy.org/2qnMHy
Here’s a situation: A photo taken on an iPhone is immediately encrypted on that device for that user. That photo sent over iMessage/Whatsapp/Signal to family members is encrypted to those family members. But if anyone stores that photo on Apple’s iCloud...
...then the full power of the British state descends on users globally. we aren’t really supposed to know any of this. That’s because any such order would be secret. Apple can’t say it has received the order because that would be a criminal offence.
The order applies globally. So our guess is the move by Apple to limit iCloud security for users in Britain is likely designed to try to stop it from affecting every user globally. Now we are surveillance nerds that have been fighting this secret power for years.
And monitor for other countries passing similar laws. To our knowledge it’s only the UK Government that gives itself the right to give secret orders to any company anywhere to undermine the security of everyone.
And the UK is the only Government that feels entitled to decide the fate of people like journalists and human rights defenders in repressive regimes who rely on such security for their lives.
We’ve repeatedly litigated repeatedly against a series of extraordinary powers held by the UK Government - but because this one is secret when its issued, it’s really hard for us to act. https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/our-cases
We must all use these rare public opportunities to call out this extraordinary power. No government should be able to suspend security for users anywhere - whether in their country or affecting users world-wide.
If you’re in the UK - for now you can download other cloud storage apps in the App Store and that grant you full control over your encryption choices, on a range of other providers’ servers. For now.
But the reality is that, unless something changes, we will never know what is secure for sure, because it’s all done by secret order by a ‘democratic’ government.
Privacy is important, remember you can always donate to PI https://pvcy.org/C3bEWm