US intelligence head 'not told' about UK secret Apple data demand
Tulsi Gabbard, the head of US National Intelligence, says she was not informed in advance about the UK government's demand to be able to access Apple customers' encrypted data from anywhere in the world.In a letter, Ms Gabbard said she was seeking further information from the FBI and other US agencies.She said if the reports were true, the UK government's actions amounted to an "egregious violation" of US citizens' privacy.The Home Office notice, which cannot legally be made public, was issued to Apple under the UK's Investigatory Powers Act in January.
Ms Gabbard added that she was also seeking legal advice over whether the UK had breached an agreement between it and the US not to demand data belonging to each other's citizens.In response to the Home Office notice, last week Apple pulled its top level privacy tool, Advanced Data Protection, from the UK market.Advanced Data Protection, external (ADP) means only account holders can view items such as photos or documents they have stored online through a process known as end-to-end encryption.Apple would have to break its encryption systems in order to comply with the UK government demand, as currently it cannot see data protected in this way so would be unable to share it with law enforcement. This is something it says it will never do.Apple's UK users' data remains encrypted in the UK but at a level which means it can be accessed by the tech giant if served with a warrant.The letter to Senator Ron Whyden and Representative Andy Biggs which has now been published online, Tulsi Gabbard said she first read about the notice in the media and had not been informed beforehand by either the UK or by Apple.Apple did not comment. The Home Office has been contacted by the BBC.
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If 'America First' means reversing globalisation along these other dimensions as well, the consequences for investors will be even more momentous than Trump's trade war. Start with tax. Over the past few decades, U.S. companies have become adept at shifting patents, intellectual property and other valuable bits of their businesses offshore. Brad Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations has demonstrated, opens new tab that the tax-driven shuffling is now so egregious that it shows up in the U.S. balance of payments statistics. In 2024, American multinationals reported earnings of $300 billion in seven low-tax jurisdictions - Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Singapore. That's six times what they made in seven of the world's largest economies combined. Setser singles out pharmaceutical giants as the most adept of the arbitrageurs. 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Leading private credit providers such as Apollo Global Management (APO.N), opens new tab and KKR (KKR.N), opens new tab have been among the biggest pioneers of the wheeze, both acquiring offshore life insurance operations. The resulting captive funding has helped drive their prolific growth. If the Trump administration cracks down on these tax and regulatory arbitrages, investors can take some simple precautions. They can shun Big Pharma on the assumption that the industry's supernormal margins will compress. They can avoid private credit providers in the expectation that funding will become more expensive. They can also short tax havens and lightly regulated jurisdictions in the anticipation that the golden geese will be flying home. If Trump takes on the third area of arbitrage money managers will have fewer places to hide. This is the edifice of international finance underpinned by the U.S. dollar. 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Given that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates, opens new tab that the same bill would boost the budget deficit by a third to $2.3 trillion, it should worry the U.S. Treasury Department too. Cracking down on international tax and regulatory arbitrage is one thing. Cracking up global finance as we know it would be quite another. If that happens, it won't be just officials in Ireland and Bermuda who will be fretting. It will be those in Washington as well. Follow @felixmwmartin, opens new tab on X
