Responding to recent news that members of Congress have called on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to consider limiting intelligence-sharing with the UK if the Home Secretary does not rescind her secret encryption-breaching order to Apple Big Brother Watch Advocacy Manager, Matthew Feeney, said:
“We agree with the rightly damning comments of US congressmen that the UK Home Secretary’s secret encryption-breaking order issued to Apple is dangerous and shortsighted. The letter from Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Andy Biggs to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is wholly justified and represents a shameful chapter in the history of UK-USA relations.
“For decades, our two countries have enjoyed close ties, but today it is clear that senior congressmen and intelligence experts seriously question whether the UK can be a trusted intelligence-sharing partner following the UK’s effective cyberattack on Apple.
“Given the extraordinary scale of information sharing between the UK and US, and other Five Eyes partners, for US representatives to raise concerns that our Government’s surveillance measures are too extreme is a telling indictment of the UK’s reckless attack on global privacy.
“It would be a disaster for British national security if the UK were to be excluded from the intelligence-sharing network that currently exists between the UK, the USA, and other allies.
“The Home Secretary’s secret order is an unprecedented attack on privacy rights that has no place in any democracy. Today’s letter shows that Yvette Cooper’s draconian order is not only a disaster for civil liberties, it is also a globally humiliating move that threatens one of the UK’s most important relationships. We urge the Home Secretary to rescind the order issued to Apple and any other similar secret orders to tech companies that would strip privacy from billions of innocent people.”
ENDS.