A top US politician has warned the UK government against using sensitive backdoor technology to spy on Americans.
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, a close ally of Donald Trump, wrote to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, on Friday, raising concerns about a lack of security cooperation, saying Britain may be using encryption to gain access to US citizens’ private data.
He pointed to the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which allows the government to issue secret orders known as “technical capability notices”.
Mr Jordan heads the House judiciary committee, a powerful force on Capitol Hill, and he has led past investigations into US federal agencies, including the activities of the FBI and US spy agencies.
The UK may be building “backdoors into their encrypted services”, he wrote to Ms Mahmood.
US companies would be prohibited from informing anyone about these backdoors without the express permission of the Home Secretary.
An encryption backdoor is a deliberately built-in flaw, master key, or hidden bypass that allows intelligence agencies to access encrypted data without the user knowing.
It bypasses end-to-end encryption, which normally keeps data unreadable to everyone but the sender and receiver.
Mr Jordan said that he had met Sir Christian Turner, the ambassador to the UK, in March about a US company who wanted to discuss a technical capability notice with members of Congress, which would require Ms Mahmood’s permission.
The ambassador had indicated this would be possible, but Ms Mahmood had denied the request, Mr Jordan said.
“This denial is inconsistent with our understanding from Ambassador Turner and raises serious concerns about shared cooperation on these sensitive matters, particularly as Congress exercises its important oversight responsibilities,” Mr Jordan wrote.
He added that it raised wider concerns about the “trust and effective partnership between our two countries”.
“We respectfully request that that you review this matter and grant the US company’s request to speak with Congress about an alleged technical capability notice,” he wrote.
“This would honour the representation made by the ambassador during our meeting and uphold the spirit of transparency and cooperation that is the foundation of our shared security relationship.”
There are growing concerns in Washington about intelligence and security threats facing Western allies.
On Wednesday, The Telegraph revealed that China is offering thousands of dollars to spies and soldiers to leak the West’s secrets.
The Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which comprises Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said that Beijing’s military intelligence services were targeting people with access to classified information.
The company said that it would “acquire privileged military, political and economic intelligence” to hand China “a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes”.
A UK Government spokesman told The Telegraph that it would respond to Mr Jordan’s letter “in the normal way in due course”, but said there would be no comment on “operational matters, including confirming or denying the existence of such notices”.
“National security is our first priority,” the spokesman said. “We have a longstanding legislative framework, including security and intelligence arrangements with the US, that enables us to tackle serious threats while safeguarding the privacy of our citizens.”
