Gabbard decries Britain’s reported demand for Apple to provide backdoor access to users’ cloud data

WASHINGTON (AP) - Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says she has serious concerns about the British government’s reported demand that Apple provide backdoor access to any data stored in the cloud.

In a written response to members of Congress, Gabbard said this week that such a demand would violate Americans’ rights and raise concerns about a foreign government pressuring a U.S.-based technology company.

"This would be a clear and egregious violation of Americans' privacy and civil liberties," Gabbard told Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who had written to express their worries.

Apple announced last week that it would stop offering an advanced data security option for British users. In a secret order, British security officials demanded that the U.S. tech giant create so-called backdoor access so that they could view fully encrypted material, The Washington Post reported this month, citing anonymous sources.

Advanced Data Protection, which Apple started rolling out at the end of 2022, is an opt-in feature that protects iCloud files, photos, notes and other data with end-to-end encryption when they're stored in the cloud.

Gabbard has asked the heads of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies to study the U.K. demand and said she will discuss it with her British counterparts. She noted that existing agreements between the two nations prohibit either country from demanding cloud data about citizens or residents of the other.

The criticism of the demands made to Apple come amid concerns that President Donald Trump could test the intelligence sharing relationships between the U.S. and its allies. British authorities have declined to comment on the reported order.

Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, alarmed many national security experts on both sides of the Atlantic when Trump tapped her to coordinate America’s intelligence operations. In the past, she has criticized government surveillance programs and made sympathetic comments about government leaker Edward Snowden and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In her letter to the lawmakers, Gabbard said she hoped Washington and London could find a way to balance security and civil rights.