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UK does not want to pay for US backdoor access?
tl,dr: "Vance argued that free speech and democracy were threatened by European elites."

edit: Don't shoot the messenger.

I really sort of expected that by the time I reached my age that we'd have more policy makers that understood tech a little better. I feel like in the last say 25 or more years ... the needle hasn't moved.
Thank goodness for that - a UK citizen.
It is for your own safety! You will be safer now.
I assumed they’d only have asked for it if they’d already OKed it with the US, and that it was probably part of a plan to give US access too via 5-eyes sharing.

Turns out it was not 4D chess after all…

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> The UK official added, this “limits what we’re able to do in the future, particularly in relation to AI regulation.” The Labour government has delayed plans for AI legislation until after May next year.

What did they mean by this

That surprises me, honestly. Makes you wonder what the British government got in return for forgetting about the encryption loicence idea.
That's my thinking. With all the people who are a part of this story why would the UK government back off and no longer want to spy on iPhone users.
Things got so out of control because the UK doesn't have heavily muscled tech emporiums that can spend time in bed with their politicians. US does. But it's a sad world the one where citizens are so helpless against their governments and the corporations.
I’m by no means a Trump fan. But I thought it was negligent how the Biden administration didn’t fight for American tech companies internationally and how the prior administration was actively hostile to them.

Then people wonder why tech embraced Trump.

The EU has similar nefarious plans as well, under the Orwellian name "ProtectEU".

https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/the-european-commissi...

I wonder how this clash is going to turn up. I would hate this development. This proposal is worthy of the Chinese Communist Party, and I am aghast just how many member states are fine with the concept of a preemptive surveillance state and breaking privacy left and right.

Of course, that is what we get for giving Ursula von der Leyen a second term (why??) She already has a reputation from her career in German politics, having earned the nickname Zensursula (censoring Ursula).

What this type of news shows is that you really can't trust any government or company with your data. So don't give them any data -- only store data on your own hardware and set up your own servers if you really need a "cloud" for your data.
The specified policy aside, it’s kind of sad to see - the UK after Brexit just doesn’t carry the same weight. It would’ve been a different story if the UK as part of the EU were moving forward with a piece of legislation.
> Apple did not respond to a request for comment. “We have never built a back door or master key to any of our products, and we never will,” Apple said in February.

This must be some "technically correct" weasel words bullcrap, as without at least equivalent access there is no chance Apple would be operating in China.

AKA "fuckin...england fucking chill, don't blow this. You're FVEY mate, why you go scaring everyone when you know I got this. Just relax, you really think TAO don't got this? The Equation Group? We got this, in there like swimwear."
Most likely the spokesperson just forgot about China. They're still a US country, after all, and US-centric thinking is the default.
In China they outsource that version of the iCloud services to a Chinese company hosted in China. The rest of the world is on Apple’s.
> US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has also suggested the order would be an “egregious violation” of Americans’ privacy

This is extremely ironic (“Americans’ privacy” basically does not exist), but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Last month, Meta-owned WhatsApp said it would join Apple’s legal challenge, in a rare collaboration between the Silicon Valley rivals".

Apple makes home computers, mobile devices, AV equipment and productivity/multimedia software.

Meta makes social media platforms, and vr headsets. What exactly makes them "rivals"? WhatsApp vs iMessage? They're two big companies in the same sector, sure, but do they really compete against each other in a major way?

Ad networks, Apple recently launched it own smaller one and nerfed Meta's data collection ability.
Say what you will about JD Vance but he has passionately confronted the European elites on their surveillance overreach and clearly it's had an impact.

We may not like everything about the current American administration, but credit where due.

lol

You realise its only the UK that is the surveillance nightmare here? EU has strong privacy and data protections.

Then again im probably talking to a maga republican that just regurgitates what their media tells them

> he has passionately confronted the European elites on their surveillance overreach passionately lol hes a role player. Americans are so easily tricked by bullshit its unreal
I’m struggling to square Vance and the administration’s position here with the fact that the US IC uses GCHQ to collect on US persons since they’re not allowed to do so directly. Why wouldn’t they want it to be easier for NSA to spy on Americans?
What could go wrong?

The UK is the same country that arrests 12,000 people a year for posting online.

> Now every force in the country has a team sifting through people’s posts trying to determine what crosses an undefined threshold. “It is a complete nightmare,” one officer admits

Britain’s police are restricting speech in worrying ways https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/05/15/britains-police... From The Economist

I don't get why the UK always does this. it's like GSM encryption all over again. Is it a particularly snoop-ey culture stemming from GCHQ or something?
The UK has always been a nanny state. Moore was writing about this decades ago.
UK citizens don't have a constitutional right to free speech, which tends to bleed over in unhealthy ways to the government prioritizing its own interests over citizens'.
particularly snoopy culture, yes, stemming from GCHQ, no idea. our government has always felt entitled to breach our privacy and we are equal parts spineless and stupid. average take on this is either "why would you care unless you have something to hide" or "that's a shame, but there's nothing we can do about anything ever."

regrettably the latter one may be correct but it'd be nice to see at least some pushback every time this happens.

ha should have stayed in the EU if you wanted that kind of negotiating leverage with the US

now sod off, as they might say