Technical Control Notices — secret orders to platform providers to drill holes in their security to support non-global, nation-state security interests, so “Britain” or “China” rather than “keep everyone safe” — have been issued by the UK against Apple.

Of course, once a hole is drilled for one nation, it will be used by [representatives of] all of them, including (e.g.) Elon Musk.

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Also: this is likewise the tactic of China: don’t surveil messenger systems when instead you can surveil the backups on iCloud; this puts the lie to “iCloud Surveillance Is Not iMessage Surveillance” which was a popular refrain when Apple proposed its doomed “let’s surveil everyone in case of CSAM” proposal.

Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/07/apple-encryption-backdoor-uk

archived at: https://archive.ph/3Pp0U#selection-649.0-656.0