Apple says no FaceTime and iMessage in UK if proposals made law – BBC News

 

Apple has threatened to remove services

such as FaceTime and iMessage from the

UK rather than weaken security features

if new government proposals are enacted

the government is working on updating

the 2016 investigatory Powers Act which

could mean that it could require Tech

firms to clear new security features

with the home office before they're

released to customers so how serious is

this apple threat that's a question I

asked our technology editor Zoe clyman

if you go back to 2015 when it was being

created Apple was very vocal about it

then and it's certainly coming out

fighting now the government's currently

holding a consultation over these

proposed amendments and Apple has

submitted a nine page document outlining

its objections and basically what it's

saying is you know it is not fair on its

customers around the West rest of the

world for it to have to get clearance

from the UK before it releases a new

security feature everywhere else and

it's also not fair to weaken its

security for one country and not for

others it says it doesn't really want to

be running different versions of its

services in different countries it

doesn't do that at the moment and it's

not going to start doing it now so what

it is saying is if these changes come in

rather than go down that route it will

just pull the services altogether

and do you think that's likely I think

two things would have to happen I think

I think there's going to be a lot of uh

backlash against these particular rules

you know what we're focusing on is

already the government the home office

in particular has the power to demand

that a company uh disables its

encryption its security if it believes

that there's a an issue of national

security or harm to children but there's

currently a process in which that has to

be reviewed there's a third party

oversight process there's an appeals

process and while all of that is going

on the tech firm doesn't have to act it

doesn't have to do anything and this

update wants to get rid of all of that

so from the moment you are served then

notice the tech family I should say

serve this notice saying we need to

disable the security it has to do it

straight away and that is what apple is

saying if this comes in and if it is

served such a notice it will just walk

away and I don't know how seriously this

is going to be taken you know it's not

something that's going to come in soon

it's certainly not something that's

going to happen overnight if you use

FaceTime and iMessage please let Panic

it's not going to disappear right now

but I think what we are starting to see

there's been a lot of Regulation that's

come the way of these Tech firms from

the UK government particularly and I

think we are now starting to see these

Tech phones say okay you know we have

been reasonable but you can't hold our

product around the world uh you know you

can't prevent us from from doing what we

want to do with our product around the

world Apple says security is an

absolutely essential part of what it

offers it's what its Customs come to us

for and it's not prepared to weaken what

it's offering to it's Global customers

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