Bipartisan politicians in the United States are pressing the head of the surveillance court in the United Kingdom to hold an open hearing on Apple’s planned challenge to a purportedly secret legal demand from the U.K. government.
In a letter to the head of the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) last week, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and four other federal lawmakers stated that it is “in the public interest” that any proceedings about the purported order not be conducted in secret.
Additionally, according to the senators’ letter, the purported U.K. order has prevented California-based Apple from using speech that is “constitutionally protected” under U.S. law and has hindered the lawmakers’ capacity to carry out legislative oversight.
This comes a week after Apple dragged the government of the United Kingdom to court over the order to create a backdoor to access its encrypted data.
Examined by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the case is the first test of the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, which gives UK authorities the ability to possibly crack encryption.
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The Advanced Data Protection service, which provided additional encryption for iCloud data, has been discontinued by Apple in the UK in accordance with the ruling.
“The iPhone maker has made its appeal to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent judicial body that examines complaints against the UK security services, according to people familiar with the matter,” according to the Financial Times.
The proceeding “is believed to be the first time that provisions in the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act allowing UK authorities to break encryption have been tested before the court,” the report stated.
The law has been openly attacked by Apple, which warned last year that the UK government is asserting its authority to demand access to customer data in any country, not just the UK.