clrcrmckNewsSecret London tribunal to hear appeal in Apple vs government battle over encryptionCampaigners call for High Court hearing to be held in public as tech giant appeals against UK government order to open a backdoor into its encrypted iCloud serviceByBill Goodwin,Computer WeeklyPublished: 11 Mar 2025 15:30 A secret tribunal is due to meet at the High Court in London this week to hear tech giant Apple appeal against a Home Office order to compromise the encryption of data stored by its customers on the iCloud service worldwide.The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has taken the unusual step of publishing a notification of a closed-door hearing on Friday 14 March, days after leaks revealed that Apple was intending to appeal against the secret order.Press and civil society groups are expected to petition the Tribunal, which rules on matters of national security, to hold the hearings in open court, given the important public interest surrounding the case and the fact the governments order has been widely leaked.The decision by home secretary Yvette Cooper to issue a Technical Capability Notice requiring Apple to give UK law enforcement and intelligence services backdoor access to data stored by Apples customers on the encrypted version of its iCloud service, has raised tensions between the UK and the US.US lawmakers are expected to intervene further in the case after the US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard President Trumps most senior advisor on intelligence and security - warned that any order from the UK that could put Americans privacy at risk would be a clear and egregious violation.As a result of the UK governments move, Apple in the UK has withdrawn its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service which allows users to store data in encrypted form on iCloud.The decision is likely to expose people in the UK using Apple services to greater risk of cyber threat as they will no longer have the ability to fully encrypt their personal data on Apples iCloud, though the service will remain available elsewhere in the world.The president of the IPT, Lord Justice Rabinder Singh, and a senior High Court Judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson, have made themselves available at short notice to hear a case behind closed doors on the morning of 14 March, according to court listings.The IPT hears national security cases in secure courts at the High Court in the Strand the only central London venue authorised for national security cases, aside from a secure court on Chancery Lane used for immigration cases.A series of leaks about the secret order issued by the UK have made it more difficult for the Home Office and security agencies to maintain a stance of neither confirming nor denying the move against Apple.Privacy International, which has brought a number of cases against government agencies in the IPT, said the Apple hearings should be conducted in public.Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director and general counsel at Privacy International said: This is a very important debate to have in public, because we're talking about the security of our computer systems that can affect millions, if not billions, of people around the world, given the reported technical capability notice has global reach.Last month, over 100 cyber security experts, companies and civil society groups signed a letter calling for home secretary Cooper to drop the demands for Apple to create a backdoor that would allow government access to encrypted communications and data stored on Apples iCloud service.Timeline of UK government's order for a backdoor into Apple's encrypted iCloud service7 February: Tech companies brace after UK demands back door access to Apple cloud - The UK has served a notice on Apple demanding back door access to encrypted data stored by users anywhere in the world on Apples cloud service.10 February: Apple: British techies to advise on devastating UK global crypto power grab - A hitherto unknown British organisation which even the government may have forgotten about is about to be drawn into a global technical and financial battle, facing threats from Apple to pull out of the UK.13 February: UK accused of political foreign cyber attack on US after serving secret snooping order on Apple - US administration asked to kick UK out of 65-year-old UK-US Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement after secret order to access encrypted data of Apple users.14 February: Top cryptography experts join calls for UK to drop plans to snoop on Apples encrypted data - Some of the worlds leading computer science experts have signed an open letter calling for home secretary Yvette Cooper to drop a controversial secret order to require Apple to provide access to users encrypted data.21 February: Apple withdraws encrypted iCloud storage from UK after government demands backdoor access - After the Home Office issued a secret order for Apple to open up a backdoor in its encrypted storage, the tech company has instead chosen to withdraw the service from the UK.26 February: US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard probes UK demand for Apples encrypted data -5 March: Apple IPT appeal against backdoor encryption order is test case for bigger targets - The Home Office decision to target Apple with an order requiring access to users encrypted data is widely seen as a stalking horse for attacks against encrypted messaging services WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.In The Current Issue:Digital twins map the world and guide strategic decisionsLiverpool reinvents customer service through digital platformDownload Current IssueSUSE CEO: Enterprise Linux where choice happens' Open Source InsiderSLM series - OurCrowd: Are domain-specific LLMs just as good (or better)? 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