House Judiciary Subcommittee probes UK order to Apple, witnesses urge CLOUD Act changes

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Subcommittee on (name not specified in transcript) held a hearing on the CLOUD Act and foreign influence on U.S. data security where witnesses described a reported U.K. order to Apple as a direct threat to global encryption and recommended prompt U.S. action and statutory changes.

The hearing featured testimony from Professor Susan Landau (Tufts University), Carolyn Wilson Palo (legal director and general counsel, Privacy International), Richard Salgado (Salgado Strategies), and Greg Nojeim (Center for Democracy & Technology). Panelists described press reports that the U.K. had issued a secret technical capability notice requiring Apple to alter its “Advanced Data Protection” iCloud feature so U.K. authorities could obtain content otherwise protected by end-to-end encryption.

Why it matters: Witnesses said a legally compelled weakening of encryption on a widely used product would not only expose U.K. users but would create a global vulnerability because the change would affect all users of that product worldwide, including Americans. They argued that such an outcome would undermine cybersecurity, hurt the…