Tag: apple

Republican Lawmakers Demand Answers on UK’s iCloud Encryption Backdoor Order

Two senior Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from the British government about its secret order forcing Apple to break its own encryption. The UK has until March 11 to respond.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast sent a joint letter on Wednesday to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, pressing for a formal briefing on the Technical Capability Notice (TCN) served on Apple under the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

It’s the latest move in a surveillance fight that began over a year ago and has rattled the US-UK relationship at the highest levels.

In January 2025, UK security officials secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor into iCloud that would allow them to decrypt any user’s data, anywhere in the world. Not just suspected criminals, not just UK citizens. Everyone.

The order targeted Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature, the optional end-to-end encryption that ensures even Apple can’t read iCloud backups. Apple’s response was to pull ADP from the UK market entirely in February 2025, stripping strong encryption options from roughly 35 million iPhone users rather than comply with a demand it couldn’t legally discuss.

UK law makes it a criminal offense for companies to confirm or deny the existence of such orders, even to their own government.

Apple couldn’t tell the US Department of Justice that the order existed. The DOJ couldn’t verify whether it complied with the CLOUD Act, the bilateral agreement governing how the two countries share access to digital evidence. That agreement explicitly states it “shall not create any obligation that providers be capable of decrypting data.” The UK’s order appears to do exactly that.

The reaction in Washington was bipartisan. Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Andy Biggs slammed the order as “effectively a foreign cyber attack waged through political means.”

President Trump compared the UK’s conduct directly to China’s. Speaking to the Spectator after meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said: “We actually told [Starmer] . . . that’s incredible. That’s something, you know, that you hear about with China.” DNI Secretary Tulsi Gabbard called any attempt to compel Apple to create security weaknesses an “egregious violation” of privacy and confirmed legal and intelligence teams were assessing the implications.

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Apple Rolls Out Age Verification to UK iPhone Users Under Online Safety Act

Apple is now starting to demand age verification from UK iPhone users, and the latest iOS 26.4 beta makes clear what’s at stake for anyone who declines.

The move is a direct consequence of the UK’s Online Safety Act, a censorship law that has also forces platforms to check the identity/age eligibility of every adult user or face fines reaching 10% of global revenue.

The law is controversial but British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says it doesn’t go far enough.

A prompt appears after installation asking users to confirm they’re over 18. Refuse, and Apple says users “will not be able to download and purchase apps or make in-app purchases.”

The verification process gives Apple several ways to build a profile of your age. It can pull from the payment method already linked to your account, use account age as a proxy, or ask you to scan a credit card. Some users may eventually be asked to scan a photo ID. Apple frames this as seamless.

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West Virginia sues Apple, saying iCloud distributed ‘child porn’

West Virginia’s attorney general sued Apple (AAPL.O) on Thursday, accusing the iPhone maker of allowing its iCloud service to become what the company’s own internal communications called the “greatest platform for distributing child porn.”

Attorney General JB McCuskey, a Republican, accused Apple of prioritizing user privacy over child safety. His office called the case the first of its kind by a government agency over the distribution of child sexual abuse material on Apple’s data storage platform.

“These images are a permanent record of a child’s trauma, and that child is revictimized every time the material is shared or viewed,” McCuskey said in the statement.

Apple in a statement said it has implemented features that prevent children from uploading or receiving nude images and was “innovating every day to combat ever-evolving threats and maintain the safest, most trusted platform for kids.”

“All of our industry-leading parental controls and features, like Communication Safety — which automatically intervenes on kids’ devices when nudity is detected in Messages, shared Photos, AirDrop and even live FaceTime calls — are designed with the safety, security, and privacy of our users at their core,” Apple said.

Apple on Thursday said it plans to roll out a feature in the coming weeks that allows users in the U.S. to flag inappropriate content such as nudity directly to Apple via a “Report to Apple” feature. This is already available in Australia and the United Kingdom. Apple said the expansion was previously planned and not in response to West Virginia’s lawsuit.

The U.S. has seen a growing national reckoning over how smartphones and social media harm children. So far, the wave of litigation and public pressure has mostly targeted companies like Meta, Snap, and Google’s YouTube, with Apple largely insulated from scrutiny.

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Democrats Demand Apple and Google Ban X From App Stores

Apple and Google are under mounting political pressure from Democrats over X’s AI chatbot, Grok, after lawmakers accused the platform of producing images of women and allegedly minors in bikinis.

While the outrage targets X specifically, the ability to generate such material is not unique to one platform. Similar image manipulation and synthetic content creation can be found across nearly every major AI system available today.

Yet, the letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai by Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Luján, and Ed Markey only asked the tech giants only about X and demanded that the companies remove X from their app stores entirely.

X is used by around 557 million users.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

The lawmakers wrote that “X’s generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores’ distribution terms.”

They pointed to Google’s developer rules, which prohibit apps that facilitate “the exploitation or abuse of children,” and Apple’s policy against apps that are “offensive” or “just plain creepy.”

Ignoring the First Amendment completely, “Apple and Google must remove these apps from the app stores until X’s policy violations are addressed,” the letter states.

Dozens of generative systems, including open-source image models that can’t be controlled or limited by anyone, can produce the same kinds of bikini images with minimal prompting.

The senators cited prior examples of Apple and Google removing apps such as ICEBlock and Red Dot under government pressure.

“Unlike Grok’s sickening content generation, these apps were not creating or hosting harmful or illegal content, and yet, based entirely on the Administration’s claims that they posed a risk to immigration enforcers, you removed them from your stores,” the letter stated.

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Apple Blocked This Anti-ICE App – Now the Creators Are Suing Trump Administration Officials

The creators of the ICEBlock app, which was pulled from online stores amid criticism from Trump administration officials, are suing those officials.

Joshua Aaron and All U Chart, Inc. allege that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, and border czar Tom Homan used their federal positions to have the app removed.

The app alerted users to ICE immigration enforcement activity in their neighborhoods to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation. The app allowed users to share the “publicly observable locations of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents” through an anonymous map interface.”

The complaint states that he created the app “in response to the Trump administration’s unprecedented campaign to arrest, detain, and deport immigrants” and that the app was intended to provide communities with information so they could “stay informed about publicly observable ICE activity in their area.”

He further stated that the app was not meant “for the purpose of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement.”

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Apple Launches TSA-ready Digital ID for Domestic Travel

Apple has launched Digital ID for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Drawing information from a user’s passport, the new feature is marketed as an “easy, secure, and private” way to verify identity during domestic travel, with additional use cases promised soon. With iPhones holding about 58 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, the update reaches a user base large enough to alter everyday identification practices.

Digital IDs sit at the center of a broader global system built through what officials refer to as “public-private partnerships.” These alliances shape policies, set technical standards, and define the rules of planet-wide “digital governance.”

Within that structure, Apple’s new update fits seamlessly. While offered to the public as a convenience feature, it will move society closer to a model in which identity, access, and compliance operate through a single device that people already carry without much thought.

Rollout

The company made its announcement on Wednesday:

Apple today announced the launch of Digital ID, a new way for users to create an ID in Apple Wallet using information from their U.S. passport, and present it with the security and privacy of iPhone or Apple Watch. At launch, Digital ID acceptance will roll out first in beta at TSA checkpoints at more than 250 airports in the U.S. for in-person identity verification during domestic travel, with additional Digital ID acceptance use cases to come in the future.

Apple stresses that Digital ID “is not a replacement for a physical passport” and will not work for international travel (at least not yet). The company also frames the feature as a help for people who lack a REAL ID-compliant document. That pitch reads two ways at once. It gives travelers a practical workaround, but also nudges the public toward a digital identity system that aligns with federal priorities.

Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, described the rollout as a natural step. “We’re excited to expand the ways users can store and present their identity,” she said. She noted that users “love having their ID right on their devices,” adding that the new feature brings that option to “even more users across the country.”

The message is simple. Your phone can now be your identification. And it can now place you inside a much larger shift in how identity works.

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Apple’s Siri accused of eavesdropping on users – Politico

French prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Apple over allegations that its voice assistant Siri collected and analyzed user recordings without proper consent. The probe has been entrusted to France’s cybercrime agency, the Paris prosecutor’s office has told Politico and Reuters.

The investigation follows a complaint filed in February by a French NGO, based on testimony from whistleblower Thomas Le Bonniec, a former employee of an Apple subcontractor, who says he listened to thousands of Siri recordings as part of quality-control work in 2019.

Le Bonniec reportedly worked for Globe Technical Services in Ireland, where he reviewed and annotated audio clips to help improve Siri’s accuracy. He told Politico that the material sometimes revealed “intimate moments and confidential information,” which could be used to identify users.

The whistleblower has welcomed the probe, saying it should allow “urgent questions to be answered,” including how many recordings were made since Siri’s launch and where the data is stored.

An Apple representative in France told Politico that the company “has never used Siri data to create marketing profiles, has never made it available for advertising and has never sold it to anyone for any reason whatsoever.” 

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ICEBlock: Apple removes ICE tracking app following Bondi’s request

Apple removed ICEBlock, which is an app for anonymously reporting sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, from the App Store on Thursday, according to reports.

The move comes after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi urged Apple to take down the tracking app a day prior.

We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi said in a statement obtained by Fox Business News. “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed. This Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”

Business Insider confirmed Apple said it also removed “similar apps” from the App Store.

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Apple, Google Refuse To Suspend ICE-Tracking Apps Used By Dallas Shooter

In a chilling social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel described how Wednesday’s sniper at a Dallas ICE facility gathered intelligence online for the ambush that left one ICE detainee dead and two seriously injured. Authorities say suspected killer Joshua Jahn, 29, committed suicide after the ambush.

While retracing Jahn’s movements and writings, the FBI found he reviewed a document that listed Dallas DHS locations, and he “searched apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents.” Marcos Charles, the ICE executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations, confirmed the gunman utilized these apps to carry out the attack. In some cases, illegal immigrants use the apps so they can give ICE the slip. But in this new use, a left-wing radical employed the apps for the even more nefarious purpose of violence and terror, a reality underscored in a letter the FBI says Jahn left.

“Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with [armor piercing] rounds on that roof?” a handwritten note read. The wording of Patel’s post indicated there could be more notes.

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Apple Removes iTorrent From Third-Party App Store AltStore PAL Without Warning

Apple has removed the iTorrent app from AltStore PAL, an alternative iOS app marketplace in the EU, even though the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is meant to guarantee users the right to install third-party software.

The app’s developer says the move was carried out without notice, without explanation, and with no way to appeal, effectively cutting off access to a legal torrenting tool that had been gaining popularity across Europe over the past year.

Daniil Vinogradov, the developer behind iTorrent (known online as XITRIX), confirmed that Apple revoked his ability to distribute apps outside of its App Store.

Although iTorrent had been hosted through AltStore PAL, the removal had nothing to do with the store itself. The decision came directly from Apple at the developer account level.

“Apple removed Alternative Distribution functionality from iTorrent’s Developer Portal without any warning,” Vinogradov posted on GitHub. He stated that Apple provided no explanation and no direct communication regarding the decision.

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