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Google will not say if UK secretly demanded a backdoor for person knowledge


The U.Ok. authorities is reportedly backing down from its earlier demand that Apple builds a secret backdoor permitting its authorities entry to buyer knowledge worldwide, following a harsh rebuke from the U.S. authorities. 

However one U.S. senator desires to know if different tech giants, like Google, have additionally obtained secret backdoor calls for from the U.Ok. authorities, and Google has to date refused to say.

Earlier this yr, The Washington Put up reported that the U.Ok. House Workplace sought a secret courtroom order within the U.Ok.’s surveillance courtroom demanding that Apple permits U.Ok. authorities to entry the end-to-end encrypted cloud knowledge saved on any buyer on this planet, together with their iPhone and iPad backups. Apple encrypts the info in such a approach that solely prospects, and never Apple, can entry their knowledge saved on its servers.

Below U.Ok. legislation, tech corporations topic to secret surveillance courtroom orders, resembling Apple, are legally barred from revealing particulars of an order, or the existence of the order itself, regardless of particulars of the demand publicly leaking earlier this yr. Critics referred to as the key order in opposition to Apple “draconian,” saying it could have world ramifications for customers’ privateness. Apple has since appealed the legality of the order.

In a brand new letter despatched to prime U.S. intelligence official Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, mentioned that whereas tech corporations can’t say whether or not they have obtained a U.Ok. order, no less than one know-how big has confirmed that it hasn’t obtained one.

Meta, which makes use of end-to-end encryption to guard person messages despatched between WhatsApp and Fb Messenger, informed Wyden’s workplace on March 17 that the corporate has “not obtained an order to backdoor our encrypted providers, like that reported about Apple.”

Google, for its half, has refused to inform Wyden’s workplace if it had obtained a U.Ok. authorities order for accessing encrypted knowledge, resembling Android backups, “solely stating that if it had obtained a technical capabilities discover, it could be prohibited from disclosing that reality,” Wyden mentioned. 

Google spokesperson Karl Ryan informed TechCrunch in a press release: “We’ve by no means constructed any mechanism or ‘backdoor’ to bypass end-to-end encryption in our merchandise. If we are saying a product is end-to-end encrypted, it’s.” 

When explicitly requested by TechCrunch, Google wouldn’t say whether or not or not it has so far obtained an order from the U.Ok. authorities. 

Wyden’s letter, first reported by The Washington Put up and shared with TechCrunch, referred to as on Gabbard to make public its “evaluation of the nationwide safety dangers posed by the U.Ok.’s surveillance legal guidelines and its reported secret calls for of U.S. corporations.”

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