Washington Post: ‘Biden Justice Department Downplayed U.K. Demand for Apple “Back Door”’

Joseph Menn, reporting for The Washington Post:

The U.S. Justice Department told Congress in November there were
no major disputes with the United Kingdom over how the two allies
seek data from each other’s communication companies.

But at that time, officials knew British authorities were
preparing a demand that Apple build a back door to its users’
encrypted data, according to people familiar with the process, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal department
matters. […]

The department said it reminded its British counterpart of the
CLOUD Act’s “requirement that the terms of the Agreement shall not
create any obligation that providers be capable of decrypting
data.” The report did not mention the looming order, and said any
demands for reduced security would come under Britain’s
Investigatory Powers Act, and so were not within the scope of the
CLOUD Act.

On Wednesday, Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, both
California Democrats, faulted the November certification, saying
“it splits the finest of hairs” by suggesting that the CLOUD Act
didn’t apply to any decryption order. The two lawmakers, who sit
on the Judiciary committees in their respective houses of
Congresses, asked Bondi to reconsider whether Britain was
violating the CLOUD Act by ordering a break to Apple’s encryption.

Two of the people familiar with the certification process said the
FBI has pursued backdoor capabilities unsuccessfully in the United
States and would have been in a stronger legal position to win
that if Apple had already had to create such a mechanism for
another government.

Just utterly disgraceful behavior from the Biden administration — choosing to look the other way at a clear violation of the CLOUD Act to help their purported buddies in the UK, at the direct expense of a US company’s autonomy and US citizens’ privacy. I don’t see how this dissembling can be defended — the Biden DOJ lied to Congress about this.

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Author Of article : John Gruber

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