A bipartisan pair of American politicians has urged Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) to be more open about its handling of Apple’s legal dispute over government demands for access to encrypted customer data. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio stated that Whitehall’s secrecy is "needlessly" straining relations between the two allies.
The politicians sent a letter to the IPT on Friday, ahead of a case-management hearing this month concerning Apple's fresh complaint. This complaint, lodged in August, challenges the government’s power to issue technical capability notices under the Investigatory Powers Act.
The dispute originated in January 2025 when the Home Office issued Apple with a technical capability notice, demanding a mechanism to access encrypted iCloud backups worldwide. Apple responded by withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection encryption feature from UK users the following month. An earlier challenge by Apple was dismissed after the Home Office withdrew the original notice and issued a narrower one targeting only British users' data.
Wyden and Davidson previously wrote to the tribunal in March 2025, alongside other lawmakers, advocating for the case to be heard in public. Weeks later, the IPT rejected the government’s attempt to keep the case entirely secret, ruling that "bare details" of Apple’s claim could be made public.