In a new statement, Apple has challenged new UK proposals to pre-approve or veto new security features introduced by tech firms before they are released to the public.

Apple has warned that this potential amendment to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 could jeopardise the security of devices and delay important security updates.

The amendment would allow the UK Home Office to pre-approve or veto an update before it was introduced to the public – if the Home Office rejected the update, no tech firm could disclose this information.

“We’re deeply concerned the proposed amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) now before Parliament place users’ privacy and security at risk,” Apple said in a statement, as reported by the BBC.

“It’s an unprecedented overreach by the government and, if enacted, the UK could attempt to secretly veto new user protections globally preventing us from ever offering them to customers.”

But it is not just Big Tech that is concerned about the new powers: civil rights groups have also voiced their dismay at the proposed amendments.

Big Brother Watch, Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights Group in a statement said that the bill’s proposed amendments were “effectively transforming private companies into arms of the surveillance state.”

They critiqued several other facets of the bill, however, saying it expanded the surveillance powers of the state and weakened safeguards for the collection of large datasets of personal information by intelligence services, threatening people’s privacy.

Rights groups have routinely critiqued the government’s push to increase their use of surveillance, especially in the realm of biometric and facial recognition.

A government spokesperson said in a statement as reported by the BBC: “We have always been clear that we support technological innovation and private and secure communications technologies, including end-to-end encryption, but this cannot come at a cost to public safety.”

Recommended reading

• WhatsApp Joins Online Safety Bill Pushback Over Encryption
• UK Coalition Calls for “Immediate Stop” to Live Facial Recognition Surveillance
• GCHQ Mass Surveillance Programmes Violated Human Rights, Court Rules

The government made a similar statement when the Online Safety Act was still in deliberation, as it had proposed to scan messages before they were encrypted for illegal activity.

The proposal did not make it into the bill, after remarkable pushback from Big Tech, with WhatsApp threatening to pull its entire platform out of the UK if they could not guarantee the integrity of end-to-end encryption.

The House of Lords will debate the amendments tomorrow.