US lawmakers urge UK tribunal to ensure openness in Apple case
US lawmakers Ron Wyden and Warren Davidson have appealed to the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal to ensure greater openness in the consideration of Apple’s dispute with the UK Home Office over access to encrypted user data. Democrat Wyden, a senator from Oregon, and Republican Davidson, a member of the House of Representatives from Ohio, said that excessive secrecy in the case is unnecessarily straining relations between the United States and the United Kingdom, The Guardian World reports.
Dispute over iCloud backups
The conflict began in January 2025, when the UK Home Office served Apple with a technical capability notice under the Investigatory Powers Act. This mechanism requires companies to assist law enforcement agencies in providing evidence. The UK government demanded that Apple create a mechanism for accessing encrypted iCloud backups of users worldwide.
The following month, Apple stopped offering the Advanced Data Protection feature to users in the United Kingdom. The company challenged the requirement before the tribunal, but its complaint was later dismissed after the Home Office withdrew the original notice and issued a narrower one concerning only the data of UK users.
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Congressional oversight
In August 2026, Apple filed a new complaint with the tribunal, challenging the government’s authority to issue such notices. A procedural hearing on the further consideration of this application is scheduled for September, and the US lawmakers’ letter is addressed to it.
Wyden and Davidson had already appealed to the tribunal in March 2025 together with other members of Congress, insisting on a public hearing. Several weeks later, the tribunal rejected the government’s attempt to fully classify the proceedings and allowed basic information about Apple’s claim, including the names of the parties, to be disclosed.
In the new letter, the lawmakers argue that the UK government should not use the secrecy regime to limit the constitutional powers of the US Congress. According to them, Apple told Congress that it could inform only the US attorney general, the vice president, and their staff about the dispute, but not legislators.
