Apple has spoken out officially in objection to a proposed UK bill that seeks to change the investigatory powers of the British government.
The bill, which has been mulled since the start of the year, was presented to the House of Commons in November. It seeks to give British authorities access to the internet use records for every British citizen, and also provides security services with the authority to hack into systems worldwide
From the submission filed by Apple:
“Strong encryption is vital to protecting people from malicious actors. Without strong defence, these attacks have the potential to impose chaos, and threaten our way of life, economic stability and infrastructure.
“This bill threatens to hurt law-abiding citizens in its effort to combat the very few bad actors who have a variety of ways to carry out their attacks…
“The creation of backdoors and intercept capabilities would weaken the protections built into Apple products and endanger all our customers. A key left under the doormat would not just be there for the good guys. The bad guys would find it too…
“Strong encryption does not eliminate Apple’s ability to give law enforcement metadata or other categories of data … the information Apple and other companies provide helps catch criminals and save lives…
“We believe the UK is the first national government to attempt to provide a legislative basis for equipment interference… The bill as it stands seems to threaten to extend responsibility for hacking from government to the private sector.”
The bill is yet to be passed by committee at the House of Commons.
[Guardian]