Apple chief, slams surveillance powers proposed by UK government

Apple CEO Tim Cook has sharply criticised surveillance powers proposed by the UK government, warning of dire consequences if spies were given a backdoor route into citizens' communications.

Questioning a key element of the draft investigatory powers bill, which would see companies under legal obligation to assist in these operations to bypass encryption, Tim Cook insisted that companies needed to encrypt in order to protect people.

Cook, on a visit to UK, said that ceasing or weakening encryption would hurt ''the good people'' rather than those who want to do bad things, and ''know where to go''.

''You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on. These things are becoming more frequent,'' Cook told the Daily Telegraph. ''They cannot only result in privacy breaches but also security issues. We believe very strongly in end-to-end encryption and no back doors. We don't think people want us to read their messages. We don't feel we have the right to read their emails.

''Any back door is a back door for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a back door can have very dire consequences.''

Cook has warned home secretary Theresa May that giving spies a 'backdoor' to access people's emails through her new snoopers' charter would in fact, weaken cyber security.

Cook said, "To protect people who use any products, you have to encrypt. You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on."

He said data breaches were becoming more more frequent. They could result not only in privacy breaches but also security issues.

"We believe very strongly in end-to-end encryption and no back doors. We don't think people want us to read their messages. We don't feel we have the right to read their emails.

"Any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a backdoor can have very dire consequences."

As the head of one of the world's top technology companies, Cook's intervention on the issue of government snooping had great significance.

Along with Google, Microsoft and others, Apple handled a huge share of communications globally.