"Apple files fresh claim against Home Office move to access encrypted cloud data", 3 August 2026

Apple has launched a fresh legal challenge against UK government demands to provide police and intelligence services with access to encrypted communications stored on the company’s iCloud service.

The company filed a complaint at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in April challenging a secret Home Office order requiring it to make UK customers’ iCloud data accessible to government agencies, according to new court filings.

The move comes a year after the Home Office dropped a wider order that could have allowed the UK to access messages and data stored by Apple’s customers in the UK, the US and other countries.

The order’s existence sparked a transatlantic row between the UK, the Trump administration and US lawmakers, leading the UK to abandon the proposals last year.

Apple now seeks to challenge a second technical capability notice (TCN) issued by the Home Office, which requires Apple to provide access to encrypted data, but only for British citizens…

Apple’s latest action follows legal challenges issued by campaign groups Privacy International and Liberty, and two individuals, over the lawfulness of the technical capability notice.

A case management hearing has been scheduled for September to discuss how to handle the parallel complaints…