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UK Court Dismisses Apple’s Complaint Over iCloud Access After Home Office Issues Revised Demand

By  |  October 15, 2025

Apple’s iCloud back door must remain open in the U.K., at least for now.

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    The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which handles complaints about surveillance requests by government agencies, has dismissed Apple’s challenge to a Home Office demand for access to user data on the iPhone-maker’s encrypted storage platform. According to Computer Weekly, Apple and the Home Office have agreed the appeal should no longer go ahead.

    “This claim is dismissed on the basis of a change in circumstances which, the tribunal has decided, means the claim should no longer proceed,” the court’s order stated, per CW.

    According to the Financial Times, the change in circumstance was a new secret order demanding Apple create a backdoor to allow access, Tech Crunch reported.

    A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment on the reported existence of a second order, per TechCrunch, but said the company is “gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP are not available to our customers in the UK, given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy.”

    ADP is an opt-in feature that allows users to set end-to-end encryption on iCloud backups such than even Apple is unable to access them.

    Related: Britain Orders Apple to Create Cloud Access for UK Data

    The Home Office’s initial demand for access, called a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) led to a diplomatic rift with the Trump Administration after it was reported by the Washington Post. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard raised the issue publicly, claiming it could “undermine Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.” President Donald Trump also weighed in, calling the order “something that you hear about with China.”

    After those comments, the U.K. agreed to drop the demand, TechCrunch reported, but Apple withdrew ADP from the country anyway.

    The new order, issued last month, limit’s the Home Office’s demand for access to data on British users only, per CW.

    University College London law lecturer Bernard Keenan told the computer trade publication that the withdrawal of Apple’s appeal by mutual consent suggested that Apple and the UK government may have come to an agreement.

    “If reports that the TCN has been limited to UK users are accurate, then the government will have maintained the capability to intercept communications sent or stored via encrypted Apple services in the UK, while Apple may have decided that they are unlikely to win an appeal against an order in those terms in court,” he said.

    A separate case against the Home Office, brought by two privacy organizations and a pair of iCloud users, is expected to continue.