The U.Ok. authorities is reportedly backing down from its earlier demand that Apple construct a secret backdoor permitting its authorities entry to buyer knowledge worldwide, following a harsh rebuke from the U.S. authorities. However one U.S. senator needs to know if different tech giants, like Google, have additionally acquired secret backdoor calls for from the U.Ok. authorities.
Google refused to reply the lawmaker’s questions however has since instructed TechCrunch that the expertise large has not acquired a backdoor demand, marking the primary time that Google has confirmed it isn’t topic to the same U.Ok. order.
Earlier this yr, The Washington Put up reported that the U.Ok. Dwelling Workplace sought a secret courtroom order within the U.Ok.’s surveillance courtroom demanding that Apple permit U.Ok. authorities to entry the end-to-end encrypted cloud knowledge saved on any buyer on this planet, together with their iPhone and iPad backups. Apple encrypts the info in such a approach that solely clients, and never Apple, can entry their knowledge saved on its servers.
Below U.Ok. regulation, tech firms topic to secret surveillance courtroom orders, similar to Apple, are legally barred from revealing particulars of an order, or the existence of the order itself, regardless of particulars of the demand publicly leaking earlier this yr. Critics referred to as the key order towards Apple “draconian,” saying it might have world ramifications for customers’ privateness. Apple has since appealed the legality of the order.
In a brand new letter despatched to prime U.S. intelligence official Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, mentioned that whereas tech firms can not say whether or not they have acquired a U.Ok. order, at the least one expertise large has confirmed that it hasn’t acquired one.
Meta, which makes use of end-to-end encryption to guard consumer messages despatched between WhatsApp and Fb Messenger, instructed Wyden’s workplace on March 17 that the corporate has “not acquired an order to backdoor our encrypted providers, like that reported about Apple.”
Google, for its half, wouldn’t inform Wyden’s workplace if it had acquired a U.Ok. authorities order for accessing encrypted knowledge, similar to Android backups, “solely stating that if it had acquired a technical capabilities discover, it might be prohibited from disclosing that truth,” mentioned Wyden.
Google spokesperson Karl Ryan instructed TechCrunch in a press release: “We have now by no means constructed any mechanism or ‘backdoor’ to bypass end-to-end encryption in our merchandise. If we are saying a product is end-to-end encrypted, it’s.”
When explicitly requested by TechCrunch, Ryan mentioned: “We haven’t acquired a technical capabilities discover,” referring to any U.Ok. surveillance order.
Wyden’s letter, first reported by The Washington Put up and shared with TechCrunch, referred to as on Gabbard to make public its “evaluation of the nationwide safety dangers posed by the U.Ok.’s surveillance legal guidelines and its reported secret calls for of U.S. firms.”
This story was up to date with extra remark from Google, shared in response to a TechCrunch inquiry.
