Apple has recently decided to stop offering Advanced Data Protection (ADP) to new users in the United Kingdom. While the company has not explicitly stated the reason for this change, it reaffirmed its stance on encryption, saying: “We have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
A possible factor in this decision is the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) of 2016, which gives the government the authority to request access to encrypted data. According to a recent Washington Post report, Apple was asked to enable access to ADP-encrypted data for UK users globally. Rather than modifying its security approach, Apple has opted to limit ADP’s availability in the UK.
This decision highlights ongoing discussions around encryption, user privacy, and regulatory compliance. While the impact is currently limited to the UK, it raises broader questions about how companies balance privacy features with legal requirements in different regions.
Perhaps now is a good time to review what services you use and whether end-to-end encryption is enabled.
More details on Apple’s ADP program can be found here.