With Apple removing its best iPhone security feature rather than submitting to misjudged government demands, it’s clear the long-running encryption debate will fire up again. And while on the surface this looks like a simply battle between law enforcement and big tech,

Apple said on Friday it was ending full end-to-end encryption for British customers and iPhone users, following US media reports the UK government had asked for global data access.

The iPhone maker confirmed last week that it would end access for UK users to the optional end-to-end encryption feature, which helps to ensure that only users can access their own personal data, such as photos and messages.

Apple has a security nightmare on its hands that’s showing no signs yet of coming to an end. For the first time, the iPhone-maker is making its famously locked-down phones less secure, putting millions of users at risk.

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Apple has just removed Advanced Data Protection for iCloud Users in the U.K. Here’s what it means and why it’s a big change for consumers.

Security officials argue that encryption hinders criminal investigations, while tech firms defend it as essential to user privacy.

Apple has announced that it has removed the Advanced Data Protection iCloud feature from the United Kingdom. The UK government had previously demanded that Apple add a backdoor to the feature in order to allow it to access encrypted data for global users.