Two years ago, Apple dropped a plan that would have made it impossible for the company to decrypt iPhone and iPad backups for law enforcement, according to a Reuters report today. Reuters wrote that "six sources familiar with the matter" confirmed that Apple dropped the end-to-end encryption plan for iCloud Backup "after the FBI complained that the move would harm investigations."
But the FBI objected, and Apple dropped the plan, although the exact reason for doing so isn't clear. One former Apple employee told Reuters that the company "decided they weren't going to poke the bear anymore." However, another former Apple employee "said it was possible the encryption project was dropped for other reasons, such as concern that more customers would find themselves locked out of their data more often."
Apple Dropped iCloud Encryption Plan After FBI Pressure – Report
When Apple spoke privately to the FBI about its work on phone security the following year, the end-to-end encryption plan had been dropped, according to the six sources. Reuters could not determine exactly why Apple dropped the plan.
According to a report from Reuters, Apple abandoned plans to release an end-to-end encrypted version of iCloud backups after facing complaints from the FBI who told Apple that it would hinder their investigations.
"That is a common misperception," says Dooms. "iCloud data are not truly end-to-end encrypted, like messaging services WhatsApp and Signal are, because Apple has the encryption keys. They can read the back-up data in the iCloud." And so can U.S. law enforcement, if a judge orders Apple to hand over the "keys" for a certain customer. Apple will not confirm it, but in January Reuters reported the company dropped a plan for end-to-end encryption of iCloud back-ups under pressure from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
As Reuters reported last year, the company had been working to make iCloud backups end-to-end encrypted, meaning the company could not turn over readable versions of them to law enforcement. It dropped the project after the FBI objected. 2ff7e9595c
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