Weakened protections for UK Apple users risks harm to journalists and our democracy, says Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary.

Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service encrypts data stored in iCloud, ensuring an enhanced level of protection to its users including journalists. This month, the Home Office served a ‘technical capability notice’ to the technology company, mandating it to provide access to information held securely.

The NUJ has been vocal about the importance of end-to-end encryption for journalists both at home and abroad, for the additional security provided when communicating with sources and storing journalistic material.

Last week, Apple announced it would no longer provide ADP to UK users, stating “we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said: 

“Ensuring communications are secure is a priority to every journalist, and our members will be disappointed that at a time when strengthened cyber security practices should be front of mind, the UK government is seemingly failing to recognise its importance. Journalism requires engagement with sources and the confidence that information relayed to inform public interest journalism is protected. We are concerned bad actors deploying spyware will feel emboldened by weakened protections for UK Apple users, risking harm to journalists and our democracy."

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