Cynthia Ng

It was a pleasure to participate in this interdisciplinary panel on tech policy. Some common themes we discussed: technological solutionism/technological innovation approaches and evidence-based processes in tech policymaking #PSA25 #politicalstudies #STS #techpolicy @techpolicy.bsky.social

However, I wonder how many users globally were aware of ADP before it gets pulled from the UK on 21 February 2025.

The launch of ADP in Dec 2022 wasn’t isolated—it came right after Apple abandoned its CSAM detection proposal due to privacy and mass surveillance concerns. On the same day, Apple announced ADP as an optional feature for iCloud, promising its highest level of cloud data security.

What’s ADP in the news then? It’s an *optional feature* Apple introduced for iCloud in Dec 2022. Turning it on enables E2EE. Without ADP, Apple keeps a recovery key to help users recover their accounts. With ADP, users must keep the key themselves, and no one, not even Apple, can access their data.

What if Apple thinks lowering its privacy standard is justified? Maybe it sees the crime as serious enough to assist investigations by removing E2EE for iCloud. But that contradicts its past claims of resisting gov demands—like when it fought the FBI over the San Bernardino case.

Assuming Apple didn’t want to lower its privacy standards but did, two possibilities: A) The ‘technical capability notice’ is legally solid, and Apple doesn’t think it can/should fight. Or B) Apple wants to expose the UK gov turning against its people and US tech, inciting backlash.

Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row - BBC News Customers' photos and documents stored online will no longer be protected by end-to-end encryption.

Apple could have resisted as it usually does (or claims it would), but it didn’t. Why?

To unpack further: What’s Advanced Data Protection (E2EE for iCloud) and where does it come from? And what power does the ‘technical capability notice’ in the IPA actually have?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK government demands access to Apple users' encrypted data - BBC News The Home Office served the notice to the tech giant under the Investigatory Powers Act.

Wow my PhD topic is hitting the headlines again!

As a way to start my Bluesky profile, I’ll be sharing some insights from my analysis of past encryption debates over the weekend. Stay tuned!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...