UK public overwhelmingly rejects backdoors into encrypted messages, poll finds

A survey commissioned by the Center for Democracy & Technology finds that British opposition to government access to encrypted communications is broad and bipartisan. Ninety-three percent of adults say they have a right to private online conversations, 89 percent want any access to personal messages to require a court order, and only 12 percent support the kind of secret, no-notification orders the government has actually been issuing. Roughly two-thirds distrust both the current government and any future one with such powers — a view that holds across every party, from 58 percent of Labour voters to 75 percent of Reform supporters.

The polling lands against a concrete policy backdrop: Apple pulled Advanced Data Protection from UK users after receiving a secret Technical Capability Notice under the Investigatory Powers Act, and reporting suggests follow-on notices continued to target British users even after US officials claimed the demand had been dropped. Notably, 55 percent of respondents hadn’t heard about the Apple case before being asked, suggesting the opposition is a default instinct rather than a reaction to headlines.

Respondents also grasp the core technical argument against backdoors: 84 percent worry that weakening encryption creates openings criminals can exploit, 82 percent fear the powers would be abused, and 53 percent judge the security risks to outweigh any law-enforcement benefit. Two-thirds say they’d self-censor if they believed they were being monitored. The takeaway for Westminster is that its long-running push for exceptional access enjoys almost no public constituency.