The most important decision in global technology is being made by a single UK judge in a small room, a decision happening in near-total privacy with no transparency at all.Whats at stake is the use of data encryption, personal privacy, and the huge risk of being forced to install backdoors into tech products. If this sounds like something that could once have happened behind the Iron Curtain, think again: Thisworld-impacting decisionis all part of what seems to be a plan to turn the nation into asurveillance society. For your protection.If youve been following along, you already know whats at stake.Welcome to spook BritainThe UK is demanding that Apple open up its systems for surveillance. Apple isopposed to this demand and has alreadywithdrawn one of the services it offered the UK as a result. Today, the company will appeal the demand of the UK Home Office in a top secret court. The public wont be able to attend that hearing, wont be able to comment on the case, will not be told the results and Apple is forbidden from discussing it. Its a real case of authoritarian overreach on steroids.The fact that it is happening at all will embolden governments globally to demand Apple, Google, and others install their own back doors, reducing digital security and privacy one leaked backdoor exploit at a time. Eventually, itwill threaten digital commerce.Being secret, we dont know if other companies are facing the same demand, but its reasonable to assume that if Apple is facing such stress, then Google will be facing the same thing. We just wont be told.Outside of public scrutiny, the UK government is making a decision that threatens serious negative consequences across most parts of life. US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last month called the matter a clear and egregious violation of Americans privacy and civil liberties.The special relationshipIn the shadowy halls and byzantine pathways infested by those who have acquired power,discussions are taking place. Only last night, a cross-party group wrote a furious letter to the UK government demanding that todays decision-making process be done in public. Signatories included US Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Warren Davidson (R-OH), and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).We write to request the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) remove the cloak of secrecy related to motives given to American technology companies by the United Kingdom which infringes on free speech and privacy, undermines important United States Congress and UK parliamentary oversight, harms national security, and ultimately, undermines the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,they warned.The demand the UK is making does, of course, undermine that relationship, as Apple will be obliged to offer up the personal data of any of its users in the world. Liberty and Privacy International have filed a legal complaint with theInvestigatoryPowers Tribunal (IPT) demanding the case be heard in public,wrote the Financial Times.Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director of Privacy International, argued: The UKs use of a secret order to undermine security for people worldwide is unacceptable and disproportionate.Too little, too lateThere has been some consultation, albeit at the 11th hour.Bloombergreports that UK officials are rushing around attempting to win support for its plans. Pointing to the UKs non-existent constitution, these discussions lean deeply into tradition and expectation of privacy and balanced use of these powers. To my mind, these promises are tantamount to purchasing a vehicle from a stranger down at your local bar; theres no trust without guarantee, and I see no guarantee in what has been promised.The UK side has, in typical myopic fashion, argued that criticism of the attempt is misinformed. If thats true, then the UK has itself to blame for this attempted digital smash-and-grab against global privacy without any significant oversight at all.Officials argue that they dont want blanket access and will only request data concerning the most serious crimes. Thats not really the point, of course the point is that there are no safe back doors; vulnerabilities even government designed ones will be identified and abused.One back door is also one too many, as when one government gains such access, all governments will demand the same thing.We will never know if we are safeWhat makes this act of self-harm worse is that the world wont be told of the decision, no matter which way it goes.The UK wont say anything, and Apple is not permitted to say anything.That means ordinary people like me and you will never know if our digital lives remain private and secure. But governments and intelligence agencies will know, which means, inevitably, that attempts to find and exploit whatever UK-mandated backdoors are put in place will intensify. Why would any other government not attempt to exploit these holes?Most of us wont know anything, until the eventual and inevitable day these backdoors are weaponized and used in a vast global attack.Far from making the world safer, this deluded demand leaves the world open to an attack that makes theCrowdstrike debaclelook like a rehearsal. The bottom line? Because we wont know how this judgement goes, we need never feel safe online again all thanks to a decision taken in top secret by one person.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.