Apple is set to appeal against a Home Office order to create a ‘backdoor’ to its encrypted data at a secret tribunal to be held at the High Court in London at the end of the week.

The Investogatory Power Tribunal has published a notification of the hearing, which will be closed-door, on the 14th of March. Typically, the IPT does not make these announcements publicly, but it was revealed days ago that Appel was looking to appeal the secret order.

Now, it is anticipated the civil society groups, as well as the press, will petition for the hearing to be open court, as the case has garnered public interest, will affect the public, and especially since the governmnet’s order was leaked.

The order from the Home Office has sparked tensions between the UK and the US. While Apple has not complied with the order and has instead chosen to remove some of its encryption tools from the UK, US officials have warned the UK that any potential infringements on the US public’s privacy would be “egregious.”

The IPT rules on national sercurity cases typically in closed, secure courts.

Typically, in the case of secret orders, the Home Office maintains a stance of neither confirming nor denying any such orders, though this has been made difficult given the number of leaks since the alleged orders were issued.

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But since the leaks, Apple’s removal of its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) from the UK, and the rise of international tensions, the news has gone mainstream.

Since the orders, over 100 cybersecurity experts and civil societies signed a letter urging Home Secreaty Yvette Cooper to withdraw the orders for Apple to create a backdoor to its encryption for law enforcement.

Since Apple’s withdrawl of ADP from the UK, many types of data will still be end-to-end encrypted by default, but key services, lke iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Voice Memos, and Reminsers will not be able to be end-to-end encrypted.