Update: Our case against UK Government's secret surveillance orders to be heard in 2026

Yesterday the Investigatory Powers Tribunal announced next steps in Apple’s and PI’s challenges to the purported UK order undermining iCloud’s security.

The Tribunal declared that it will aim to hear much of Apple’s case, as well as PI and our co-claimants’, in public based on assumed facts. The Tribunal will convene a seven day hearing to be scheduled in early 2026. Its aim will be to hear Apple’s case and PI’s case during those seven days.

This ‘case management order’ follows submissions from all parties and an application from WhatsApp to intervene in both Apple’s case and the challenge brought by PI, Liberty and two individuals.

By proceeding on assumed facts, the Tribunal intends to hear as much as possible of Apple’s and PI’s claims in open. While we welcome an open hearing, the UK Government’s insistence on maintaining its ‘neither confirm nor deny’ position on the widely-discussed order is unsupportable. The parties are being forced to sustain the fiction that the order does not exist, which may hinder our ability to grapple fully with its legal ramifications.

The Tribunal has also refused WhatsApp’s application to intervene, denying the largest provider of end-to-end encrypted services in the world a chance to defend itself and its users.

These developments proceed from the challenge PI, Liberty and two individuals filed in March 2025, which disputes the lawfulness, necessity and secrecy of the legal regime underpinning Technical Capability Notices (TCNs), the formal name for the order that has reportedly been served on Apple.

These court proceedings are not the only pressure the UK is facing regarding the Apple order. The Financial Times has reported that the Goverment is “seeking a way out of a clash with the Trump administration over the UK’s demand that Apple provide it with access to secure customer data.” The US Government is not happy with this order, either.

That is not surprising because the fight over the Apple order is ultimately about end-to-end encryption and whether the UK Government can dictate if this vital form of digital security should exist for users worldwide.

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