The UK government has lost its bid to keep the details of the surveillance order brought against Apple secret, according to a newly released decision by the UK Court of Supervisory Powers.
The decision posted by the London Court of Investigation on Monday means that some of the legal cases will be held publicly despite objections from the UK government.
In Monday's ruling, a court judge said he would not accept that the revelation of naked details of the case would damage public interest or be a disadvantage to national security. This is the first general perception that a case exists, although specific details of the case are withheld.
Much of the “naked details” in the case is reportedly related to the UK legal demands ordering from Apple to allow UK authorities to access encrypted cloud data from Apple customers everywhere around the world.
The Washington Post in February released details of legal demand and revealed the existence of UK backdoor demand. Soon after that, Apple said it could “never” provide advanced data protection. This allows customers to encrypt files in Apple's cloud, preventing non-users from accessing UK users.
Neither Apple nor the Home Office, which launched demand on behalf of the UK government, has so far been commenting on certain legal cases, and has even prevented the existence of the incident itself, as it is subject to UK national security regulations.
Following the order, Apple reportedly appealed the order to the Investigation Court. The UK government responded by telling the court that national security would suffer if the nature of the lawsuit was made public.
Privacy and rights advocates, a coalition of news outlets, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers, and senior intelligence officers in the Trump administration are all seeking transparency around legal hearings.
When contacted by TechCrunch, a UK Home Office spokesman did not comment. An Apple spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
Apple previously told TechCrunch that the company “has never built a backdoor or a master key” for any of its products or services.