The UK government was dealt a blow in its attempts to keep the details of an Apple appeal about the use of its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) system in the country under wraps, as a court confirmed a legal battle between the pair was underway.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) stated it rejected a UK government request to keep the details of the case a secret, siding with a coalition of civil liberties groups and news organisations including BBC News and Financial Times (FT), which argued against such a move.

Appealing on the potential impact to national security, the government fought against making the nature and existence of the legal action public.

However, in the ruling, the tribunal pointed out there had already been extensive media reporting on the issue.

“It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place,” the IPT stated.

The IPT added it did not believe revealing the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security.

No master key
Apple pulled the plug on its ADP feature in the UK in February after the Home Office requested it provide access to encrypted information on national security grounds.

The iPhone maker decided to remove the feature entirely instead of complying with revised regulation which would have forced it to develop a way to open access to the end-to-end encryption used for its iCloud service.

Apple has consistently rejected requests for back door access, arguing opening its system up would leave users vulnerable.

It also opposed the request for secrecy by the UK government.

Reacting to the ruling, it reiterated its statement from February insisting: “We have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

FT reported the Home Office declined to comment.