Petition · past parliament · Home Office

Do not require encryption services to establish backdoors to enable data access

Closed 1,019 signatures

What the petition asks

It has been reported that governments around the globe, including the UK Government, wish to see technology and service providers implement encryption backdoors in the services which they offer. The UK Government should not enforce this approach.
While the intention behind this is well intended (to catch criminals), it could simply result in driving criminals to utilise their own services which do not contain backdoors, while putting the privacy and security of law-abiding citizens at risk. Implementing a backdoor in an encryption algorithm defeats the purpose of the encryption algorithm, and we believe this cannot be done securely.

Timeline

25 Nov 2020 Petition opened for signatures
25 May 2021 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 1,019
Status Closed
Department Home Office
Opened 25 Nov 2020
Closed 25 May 2021

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.