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Court documents shed new light on UK-Apple row over user data

The document suggests the government may still want access despite US officials saying it had dropped the demand.

Now a court document suggests the request - made under legislation called the Investigatory Powers Act - could have also enabled the government to seek access to a wider range of Apple customer data. The new court document from the IPT is dated Wednesday, 27 August - eight days after Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, said the UK had withdrawn its controversial demand to access global Apple users' data if required. Gabbard said at the time in a post on X the UK had agreed to drop its instruction for the tech giant to provide a "back door" which would have "enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties".

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