Brits overwhelmingly reject government access to encrypted messages, new polling shows

New polling commissioned by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) delivers a blunt message to Westminster: the British public does not want the government poking around in their encrypted chats. The survey of 2,000 adults found 93% believe they have a right to private conversations online, and 89% think no one should access personal messages without a court order.

Most striking for policymakers: two-thirds of respondents said they would not trust either the current government or any future one with the power to access encrypted messages. That distrust spans the political spectrum — 58% of Labour voters, 59% of Conservatives, 56% of Liberal Democrats, 69% of Greens, and 75% of Reform voters all said they wouldn't trust any government with such power.

The polling, conducted by Public First in April and weighted to reflect the wider population, lands amid an ongoing clash between the UK's Investigatory Powers Act and the tech industry's stance that encryption is only secure when no backdoors exist. The fight became public when Apple withdrew Advanced Data Protection from UK users after receiving a secret Technical Capability Notice (TCN). Apple challenged the order, and while the US government later said Britain withdrew its demand for access to Americans' data, reports suggest another TCN targeting British users was issued.

Despite the controversy, 55% of those polled hadn't heard about the Apple notice. When informed, support for secret government orders remained thin: just 12% backed the government being able to secretly order companies to provide access while preventing them from revealing the order. A third said the government shouldn't have that power at all, and 41% wanted greater transparency or parliamentary oversight.

Respondents also weighed the security trade-offs. 53% said the security risks of accessing encrypted messages outweighed the benefits, versus 28% who thought the benefits won out. Concerns were widespread: 84% worried that access mechanisms could introduce vulnerabilities for hackers and criminals, and 82% were concerned the powers could be abused.

The chilling effect is real too. 65% said they'd become more cautious about what they liked, shared, or commented on, and 41% said they'd self-censor criticism of public institutions or government officials.

CDT is a digital rights group that campaigns for strong encryption and commissioned this research as part of that work, though the polling itself was carried out independently. Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, said the public 'instinctively know that being able to communicate privately is crucial to our individuality and to the survival of a free and open society.'

None of this is likely to end Westminster's pursuit of encrypted communications. But if ministers hoped the public was behind them, these numbers suggest otherwise.