Brits Overwhelmingly Reject Government Access to Encrypted Messages

“93 percent of British adults believe they have a right to private conversations online.”

Polling snapshot: methodology and headline numbers

New polling commissioned by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) delivers a blunt public verdict: a clear majority of British adults oppose government access to encrypted private messages. Public First polled 2,000 British adults in April and weighted the results to reflect the wider population; the margin of error is 2.2 percentage points. Among the key findings, 93 percent said they believe they have a right to private conversations online and 89 percent said nobody should be able to access their personal messages without a court order.

Trust in government — across party lines

Distrust of government access to encrypted messages is not confined to supporters of a single party. Two-thirds of respondents said they would not trust either the current government or any future one with the power to access encrypted messages. Among those who voted in the 2024 general election, the breakdown was: 58 percent of Labour voters said they wouldn't trust any government with the power; 59 percent of Conservative voters; 56 percent of Liberal Democrat voters; 69 percent of Greens; and 75 percent of Reform voters.

Apple, Technical Capability Notices, and public awareness

The debate has already spilled into public view through a dispute involving Apple and UK law enforcement. Apple withdrew Advanced Data Protection from UK users after receiving a secret Technical Capability Notice (TCN) under the Investigatory Powers Act and challenged the order. The US government later said Britain had withdrawn its demand for access to Americans' encrypted data, but reports have since suggested another TCN was issued focusing on British users. Despite the media attention around that row, 55 percent of those polled said they hadn't heard about the Apple notice at all.

Transparency, security trade-offs and behaviour change

Once the idea of secret government orders was put to respondents, enthusiasm for covert access was limited. Just 12 percent backed the government being able to secretly order companies to provide access to users' information while preventing those companies from revealing the order. A third said the government shouldn't have that power at all, while another 41 percent wanted greater transparency or parliamentary oversight. On trade-offs between law enforcement and security, 53 percent said the security risks of accessing encrypted messages outweighed the benefits, compared with 28 percent who thought the benefits came out on top.

Concerns were specific: 84 percent worried that mechanisms allowing access to encrypted messages could introduce vulnerabilities that hackers and criminals could exploit, and 82 percent were concerned the powers could be abused. Respondents also said their behaviour would change if such access existed: 65 percent said they'd become more cautious about what they liked, shared or commented on, and 41 percent said they'd self-censor criticism of public institutions or government officials.

What this means for technologists, policymakers, and end users

• Technologists and security teams: the polling underscores public concern that engineered access will introduce software and device vulnerabilities—84 percent flagged that risk—while the Apple-Advanced Data Protection episode shows how technical measures and legal orders can collide in practice.
• Policymakers and regulators: the results put pressure on any legislative or regulatory push for covert access. Only 12 percent backed secret orders without disclosure, and 41 percent want transparency or parliamentary oversight, suggesting public appetite is for greater accountability if such powers are sought.
• End users and the general public: strong majorities assert a right to private online conversation (93 percent) and express behavioural worries—65 percent expect to be more cautious online and 41 percent would self-censor criticism of institutions or officials—indicating real-world consequences for civic life.

CDT, which campaigns for strong encryption, commissioned the research; Public First carried out the polling independently. Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, commented on the findings: “The British public instinctively know that being able to communicate privately is crucial to our individuality and to the survival of a free and open society. The government persists with the myth that it can weaken encryption to target the bad guys only. Attacks on the security of our phones, security tools and messaging apps harm us all and make our democracy weaker.”

None of this appears likely to end Westminster's long-running pursuit of encrypted communications access. But if ministers were hoping the public was enthusiastically behind them, the numbers suggest otherwise.

Source: The Register — Turns out Brits would quite like their private messages to stay private