US lawmarker raises concerns that UK may have ordered Google to introduce ‘backdoors’ into end-to-end encrypted back-ups impacting billions of Android phone users
US lawmarker raises concerns that UK may have ordered Google to introduce ‘backdoors’ into end-to-end encrypted back-ups impacting billions of Android phone users
Senator Ron Wyden has written to the US director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard urging her to provide Congress and the American public with a “frank assessment” of the security risks posed by UK surveillance to the US.
The letter, which follows disclosures that the Home Office has issued a secret notice to Apple to gain access to its users’ encrypted data, raises new concerns that the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act may allow the UK much wider access to data on US citizens than previously reported.Android phones may have ‘backdoors’
In a letter to Gabbard yesterday, Wyden claims that the Home Office may have issued a secret order against Google to introduce “backdoors” to the encrypted back-up service used by billions of Android phone users worldwide.
The letter also raises questions about Home Office powers in the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 to issue orders to secretly force US companies to store data belonging to US citizens in the UK “where it could be then seized by the US government.”
Wyden’s intervention comes as president Trump, who has criticised the Home Office’s order against Apple as something China would be expected to do, met with prime minister Keir Starmer, at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
Wyden and Republican Congressman Andy Biggs first wrote to Gabbard in February 2025, after a leak in The revealed that the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, had issued a order, known as a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) against Apple, requiring it to introduce ‚backdoor‘ access to users‘ dater stored on its advanced encrypted storage service.
