Here’s a disheartening bit of news from the UK. It looks like England has gone into full 1984 “Big Brother” mode. It’s all about data… and Apple. You see, Governments ask Apple all the time to unlock phones in criminal cases. (Sometimes Apple says yes, and sometimes they say no. Don’t even get me started on that) So, it’s not too strange for that to happen. What IS disheartening now is what the UK asked for and what Apple gave them.

This from Reuters: Feb 21 (Reuters) – Apple (AAPL.O)
is dropping its most advanced, end-to-end security encryption feature for cloud data in the UK, the company said on Friday in an unprecedented move after reports that the government demanded a backdoor for user data access.

Apple has end to end encryption. Advanced Data Protection. It’s a service that they sell. It protects everything on your phone. Apple doesn’t offer it anymore. It’s not available in the UK. And if you already have it? Big Brother, UK edition will need you to disable it. Thank you very much, citizen.

Now in fairness, The UK wanted a ‘backdoor key’ to anyone’s phone and Apple is fighting that at least. Here’s more on the UK going big brother.