Calls grow for UK to move secret Apple encryption court hearing to public session

Politicians and civil society groups in the United Kingdom are calling for a secret court hearing expected on Friday about the British government’s encryption demands on Apple to be held in public.

It follows warnings from experts, including from Britain’s own intelligence community, that the government’s attempts to access encrypted messaging platforms should be more transparent. Academics described the Home Office's ongoing refusal to either confirm or deny the legal demand as unsustainable and unjustifiable.

Listings for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal — the only court in the country that can hear certain national security cases — include a hearing set to take place behind closed doors on Friday, featuring the Tribunal’s president, Lord Justice Singh, alongside the senior High Court judge Justice Johnson.

It follows Apple turning off the option for its British users to protect their iCloud accounts with end-to-end encryption last month, in the wake of a reported legal order from the British government requiring Apple provide it with access to encrypted iCloud accounts. 

The hearing is purportedly the company’s attempt to contest this order although it is unclear on what legal grounds that attempt is being made.

The British government continues to say it neither confirms nor denies the existence of such legal demands. Apple has not confirmed the reason the encryption feature was turned off, and would be prohibited from doing so if it were due to a Technical Capability Notice, but stressed when it announced the move that “we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

In a joint letter on Thursday to Lord Justice Singh, a collection of British civil liberties groups asked him to use his discretion to open the hearing to the public, arguing that doing so would not prejudice national security.

“There is significant public interest in knowing when and on what basis the UK government believes that it can compel a private company to undermine the privacy and security of its customers,” the campaigners wrote.

They argued that there are “no good reasons to keep this hearing entirely private” given the existence of the secret legal order has been publicly reported and effectively confirmed by Apple’s decision to remove its end-to-end encrypted service for British iCloud users.

Politicians from opposition parties, including the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats and Reform, have also called for more transparency from the Home Office. David Davis, a Conservative Party politician who has long campaigned to limit state surveillance powers, told Sky News the government needed to explain its case to the public if it wants “effectively unfettered access” to private data.