Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard Calls UK Ordering Apple To Create ‘Backdoor’ To Encrypted Consumer Data an ‘Egregious’ Violation of Americans’ Rights

Besides the many trade, geopolitical and security issues plaguing the relations between the US under President Donald J. Trump and the European ‘allies’, another sticking point is bound to be the matter of freedom of speech and privacy rights of citizens.

After the UK, under leftist PM Keir Starmer, secretly ordered Apple to create a ‘backdoor’ into the iPhone users’ encrypted data worldwide, the new U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, called it an ‘egregious’ violation of American rights.

Gabbard also said it could violate a law regarding cooperation in investigations between the countries.

The new DNI wrote yesterday (25) to Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona), disclosing that she had directed a legal review of the UK’s secret order.

She said that she had not known of it before it was reported, and acted after the legislators’ appeal to her.

The Washington Post reported:

But, instead of complying, Apple pulled the secure storage from U.K. customers entirely, stating that it had never built a back door into its products and never would.

The encrypted storage capability remains available everywhere else in the world.

The CLOUD agreement bars the British from deliberately seeking information on Americans, but if Starmer forces the creation of a universal back door, it would create ‘a new target for hackers and spies elsewhere’.