Apple Inc.’s feature to enable end-to-end encryption for user iCloud accounts has come under fire in the UK, where government officials want the company to disable it and build a backdoor that lets them access data.

Apple’s excellent Advanced Data Protection (APD) is central to this new furor. This applies end-to-end encryption to almost all the sensitive data on your iPhone, including your iCloud drive, photos,

Not only is Apple unable to either confirm or deny that it has been told to create this back door, but the UK Home Office will not do so either. Making this worse, while Apple can appeal the demand, it can only do so in a secret court and must deliver the demanded access even before that appeal is heard.