hanohiki - stock.adobe.com
WhatsApp is refused right to intervene in Apple legal action on encryption ‘backdoors’
Investigatory Powers Tribunal to hear arguments in public over lawfulness of secret UK order requiring Apple to give UK law enforcement access to users’ encrypted data stored on the Apple iCloud
A court is to hear legal challenges against a secret order issued by the Home Office requiring Apple to give British law enforcement and intelligence agencies the ability to access its users’ encrypted data stored on the iCloud in a public hearing in 2026.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ruled today that it would hear five legal challenges brought by Apple, Privacy International, Liberty and two individuals, in open court over seven days early next year.
The court however, refused to allow the encrypted messaging service, WhatsApp the right to intervene in the case brought by the NGOs. Apple is bringing its own case which will be considered at the same time.
WhatsApp’s CEO Will Cathcart submitted evidence to the tribunal in June, raising concerns that the move by the UK government would undermine the security of people using encrypted communication and cloud services.
He said that the technical capability notice (TCN), would set a “dangerous precedent for security technologies that protect users around the world”.
Next year's hearing will test the ability of technology companies to use encryption to secure their customers’ data without being ordered to create “backdoors” to provide access to UK law enforcement and intelligence services.
The Home Office argues that it needs the capability to access encrypted data stored by Apple users anywhere in the world on its iCloud service to fight terrorism and child abuse.
However, technology companies and security experts have repeatedly warned that government attempts to weaken encryption will inevitably be exploited by cyber criminals and rogue national states, impacting the security of internet users worldwide. They argue that there are other ways to fight crime that do not require weakening encryption.
The Home Office’s decision to issue a technical capability notice (TCN) against Apple in January has raised tensions between US lawmakers and the UK government, over what the US sees as unwelcome interference in US Big Tech companies.
President Trump and US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard have both criticised the Home Office’s move against Apple. Gabbard warned that any attempt by the UK to create a backdoor that would allow the UK to access the data of Americans would be a “clear and egregious violation”.
Court permits Home Office NCND
Although the existence of the order became public knowledge when it was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, the IPT found that the Home Office should be allowed to continue its policy of “neither confirming nor denying” (NCND) the existence of the order against Apple.
Judges rejected arguments from Privacy International and Liberty that the court should hear legal arguments over whether the Home Office should be allowed to continue with its NCND policy, as this would delay hearing Apple’s case against the Home Office.
The court will proceed based on “assumed facts” rather than “actual facts”, which will enable the hearing to be held in public without requiring the Home Office or Apple to disclose details of the order that could only be heard in a private court session.
Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director and general counsel of Privacy International, said she welcomed the court’s decision to hear Apple’s case, and that of Privacy International and Liberty, in largely public hearings.
NCND policy ‘absurd’
But she said the UK government’s insistence on maintaining its “neither confirm nor deny” policy when the existence of the order has been widely leaked, reported and discussed, was “absurd”.
“We are being forced to sustain the fiction that the order does not exist, which may hinder our ability to grapple fully with its legal ramifications,” she said.
The Privacy International lawyer said the tribunal’s refusal to allow WhatsApp to intervene in the case “denied the largest provider of end-to-end encrypted services in the world a chance to defend itself and its users”.
“There should be no mistake – the fight over the Apple order is ultimately about end-to-end encryption and whether the UK government can dictate if this vital form of digital security should exist for users worldwide,” she added.
WhatsApp warned in June that the case could undermine the security of people’s private communications and expose them to attacks from hackers and hostile nation states.
“We’ve applied to intervene in this case to protect people’s privacy globally. Liberal democracies should want the best security for their citizens. Instead, the UK is doing the opposite through a secret order,” said Cathcart.
“This case could set a dangerous precedent and embolden nations to try to break the encryption that protects people’s private communication,” he added.
Apple withdrew its Advanced Data Protection service from UK users in February 2025, rather than comply with the Home Office’s order.“ As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services, and we never will,” Apple said in a statement at the time.
The legal challenges to the Home Office are being brought by Privacy International, Liberty, Gus Hosein and Ben Wizner. Apple is bringing a separate legal challenge.
Timeline of UK government’s order for a backdoor into Apple’s encrypted iCloud service
- 21 July: UK may be seeking to pull back from Apple encryption row with US - UK government officials say that attempts by the Home Office to require Apple to introduce ‘backdoors’ to its secure encrypted storage service will cross US red lines
- 12 June: Apple encryption row: Does law enforcement need to use Technical Capability Notices? History shows that law enforcement can bring successful prosecutions without the need for the Home Office to introduce ‘backdoors’ into end-to-end encryption.
- 11 June: WhatsApp seeks to join Apple in legal challenge against Home Office encryption orders – WhatsApp today applied to intervene in an Investigatory Powers Tribunal case that is considering the UK’s ability to issue a technical capability notice on Apple to ‘weaken encryption’.
- 11 June: Government using national security as ‘smokescreen’ in Apple encryption row - Senior conservative MP David Davis says the Home Office should disclose how many secret orders it has issued against telecoms and internet companies to Parliament.
- 5 June: US politicians are calling for Congress to rewrite the US Cloud Act to prevent the UK issuing orders to require US tech companies to introduce ‘backdoors’ in end-to-end encrypted messaging and storage.
- 15 April: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is a semi-secret judicial body that has made significant legal rulings on privacy, surveillance and the use of investigatory powers. What does it do and why is it important?
- 7 April: Investigatory Powers Tribunal rejects Home Office arguments that identifying the ‘bare details’ of legal action by Apple would damage national security, leaving open possibility of future open court hearings.
- 02 April: Apple has appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over an order by home secretary Yvette Cooper to give the UK access to customers’ data protected by Advanced Data Protection encryption. What happens next?
- 7 February: Tech companies brace after UK demands backdoor access to Apple cloud – The UK has served a notice on Apple demanding backdoor access to encrypted data stored by users anywhere in the world on Apple’s cloud service.
- 10 February: Apple: British techies to advise on ‘devastating’ UK global crypto power grab – A hitherto unknown British organisation, which even the government may have forgotten about, is about to be drawn into a global technical and financial battle, facing threats from Apple to pull out of the UK.
- 13 February: UK accused of political ‘foreign cyber attack’ on US after serving secret snooping order on Apple – US administration asked to kick UK out of 65-year-old UK-US Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement after secret order to access encrypted data of Apple users.
- 14 February: Top cryptography experts join calls for UK to drop plans to snoop on Apple’s encrypted data – Some of the world’s leading computer science experts have signed an open letter calling for home secretary Yvette Cooper to drop a controversial secret order to require Apple to provide access to users’ encrypted data.
- 21 February: Apple withdraws encrypted iCloud storage from UK after government demands ‘backdoor’ access – After the Home Office issued a secret order for Apple to open up a backdoor in its encrypted storage, the tech company has instead chosen to withdraw the service from the UK.
- 26 February: US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard probes UK demand for Apple’s encrypted data – A secret order issued by the UK against Apple would be a ‘clear and egregious violation’ if it provides back door access to Americans’ encrypted data, says US director of national intelligence.
- 5 March: Apple IPT appeal against backdoor encryption order is test case for bigger targets – The Home Office decision to target Apple with an order requiring access to users’ encrypted data is widely seen as a ‘stalking horse’ for attacks against encrypted messaging services WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.
- 11 March: Secret London tribunal to hear appeal in Apple vs government battle over encryption – A secret tribunal is due to meet at the High Court in London to hear tech giant Apple appeal against a Home Office order to compromise the encryption of data stored by its customers on the iCloud service worldwide.
- 13 March: US Congress demands UK lifts gag on Apple encryption order – Apple and Google have told US lawmakers that they cannot tell Congress whether they have received technical capability notices from the UK.
- 14 March: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal holds a day-long secret hearing into an appeal brought by Apple against a government notice requiring it to provide law enforcement access to data encrypted by its Advanced Data Protection service on the iCloud, despite calls for the hearing to be opened to the public.
- 24 March: Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International – Why I am challenging Yvette Cooper’s ‘secret backdoor’ order against Apple’s encryption.
- 31 March: Apple devices are at ‘most risk’ in UK following government ‘backdoor’ order, Lord Strasburger tells the House of Lords as a Home Office minister declines to give answers.
Read more on Privacy and data protection
-
![]()
UK may be seeking to pull back from Apple encryption row with US
By: Bill Goodwin
-
![]()
Apple encryption row: Does law enforcement need to use Technical Capability Notices?
-
![]()
WhatsApp seeks to join Apple in legal challenge against Home Office encryption orders
By: Bill Goodwin
-
![]()
Government using national security as ‘smokescreen’ in Apple encryption row
By: Bill Goodwin
