Customers stand beneath an Apple logo. (Photo : Reuters/Mike Segar)
Apple publicly expressed its disapproval of the proposed surveillance law in the United Kingdom. The tech giant said that threats to national security do not justify the proposed weakening of privacy protocols which could put millions of sensitive user data at risk.
Apple is challenging the proposed UK law called the Investigatory Power bill. The bill attempts to strengthen the scope of law enforcement agencies who are investigating potential crimes or terrorist attacks. A provision on the bill will allow the government to access the Internet browsing history of UK citizens.
The Cupertino-based company said that passing the bill will weaken user privacy tools such as encryption. This could potentially open vulnerabilities and loopholes which can be exploited by sophisticated hackers and spy agencies.
In a statement acquired by MacRumors, Apple said, "The creation of backdoors and intercept capabilities would weaken the protections built into Apple products and endanger all our customers. A key left under the doormat would not just be there for the good guys. The bad guys would find it too."
Major tech companies like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo will also submit evidence to the committee that debates whether to pass the UK bill. Almost all tech companies have ramped up their encryption technology following the revelation of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about spying activities of governments.
Following Snowden's revelation in 2013, tech companies, including Apple, have adopted the end-to-end encryption protocol which prevent anyone other than the sender and the receiver to read the messages being transmitted. The encryption protocol is so strong that even Apple's own system cannot intercept the message, according to Bloomberg.
