When reports of this latest effort first emerged last week, 109 civil society organisations, companies, and cybersecurity experts, published a joint letter to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, which said the demand "jeopardises the security and privacy of millions, undermines the UK tech sector, and sets a dangerous precedent for global cybersecurity".
Apple's decision to withdraw its most secure cloud storage service from the UK is just the latest turning point in a battle that has been rumbling on between US tech companies and successive British governments for some time.
Now it has used the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), the so-called 'snoopers charter', to try to force Apple to allow security authorities access to encrypted cloud data, which Apple itself does not view.
However, tech companies and security experts say a 'backdoor' isn't possible without undermining security and privacy for all users.
It means Apple is now complying with the law, and in that sense the government has got what it wanted, but it means users in the UK have lost the additional layer of security.
