The Home Office's Response to my questions about the removal of Apple's ADP

8 points

a year ago

I am a British citizen, and an academic. I wrote to my local MP, highlighting the problems associated with the removal of Apple's Advanced Data Protection, how it was previously recommended by the security services themselves as an example of good practice, and how E2EE can mitigate many cybersecurity risks that have historically caused huge amounts of harm thorough bulk data breaches.

Much to my surprise, my MP agreed with me and forwarded my letter on to the home office, probably because it was lengthy and filled with citations.

I thought the audience of Hacker News would be interested to read their response below, which is, unfortunately, as expected, and frankly indicates that they did not engage substantively with what I had to say. ------------ 20 March 2025 Dan Jarvis MBE MP Security Minister 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF www.gov.uk/home-office

Rt Hon Anneliese Dodds MP

Dear Anneliese,

Thank you for your letter of 28 February to the Minister of State for Data Protection and Telecoms on behalf of your constituent, Mr Miller [NB: that is not my title!] about media reporting concerning access to data. Your letter was transferred to the Home Office, and I am replying as the Security Minister.

As I know you will understand, I cannot comment on operational security matters, including confirming or denying the existence of any such notices. This has been the longstanding position of successive UK Governments for reasons of national security.

Successive UK governments have also been clear on the issue of online safety. We need to ensure that action can be taken against child sexual abusers and terrorists at the same time as ensuring there are safeguards for people’s privacy. The UK Government takes privacy very seriously and has a strong international reputation for protecting human rights. We know data access is invasive, and access to data only happens in particular circumstances and under strict safeguards.

On the wider and longstanding debate about end-to-end encryption, governments of different parties have concluded that tech companies need to make sure that end-to-end encryption still has safeguards to protect children from sexual predators, and to protect the country from terrorists. This concern is also shared by other governments around the world. The suggestion that cybersecurity and access to data by law enforcement are at odds is false.

It is possible for online platforms to have strong cybersecurity measures whilst also ensuring child sexual abuse and other criminal activities can be detected.

I hope that this response will reassure Mr Miller of the Government’s commitment to the protection of privacy whilst also ensuring action can be taken against serious threats and criminality online.

Thank you again for your letter.

Dan Jarvis MBE MP Security Minister