The existence of a legal battle between Apple and the U.K. government cannot be hidden from the public, ruled the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal on April 7, rejecting government efforts to keep even the existence of the legal battle under wraps.
“It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place,” the tribunal stated in its decision, which came following pressure from media organizations and civil liberties groups.
The dispute centers on the U.K. government’s demand for access to data protected by Apple’s Advanced Data Protection—an end-to-end encryption system that even Apple cannot unlock. In response, Apple challenged the order, arguing that creating a “backdoor” for government access would endanger all users by exposing the system to potential exploitation by malicious actors. Apple has consistently stated it has never built, and will not build, any form of master key or backdoor for its devices.