Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
- Members of the UK government want to update the Investigatory Powers Act to make it easier to snoop on citizens.
- This would involve compromising end-to-end encryption.
- Apple has now said it will not comply with the changes if instituted and would simply pull services out of the UK.
In the United Kingdom, government members want to update a 2016 statute called the Investigatory Powers Act. The statute is similar to the Patriot Act in the United States in that it allows the government to obtain private information about citizens when it is in the interests of national security.
One of the updates the government wants is to force tech firms to break encryption protocols when necessary. This would include the end-to-end encryption (E2EE) users enjoy when using apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, etc. It would also include two of Apple’s most widely used services: FaceTime and iMessage.