Shocking.

Experts say what is even more dangerous, is the fact that any such battles between tech companies and the UK government will take place in private. Any warrants issued to a company to decrypt users’ data will come with a gagging order, forbidding the firm from discussing it. "There wouldn’t be any public debate about it," Harmit Kambo, campaigns director at Privacy International, tells The Verge. "Apple vs. the FBI just wouldn’t happen in the UK." The first we might know of a battle over encryption could be a company simply withdrawing its services from the UK. "The invisibility of it is the biggest trick they’ve pulled," says Kambo. "It’s sad that the Snowden revelations backfired so spectacularly here. Rather than rolling back powers, they’ve been used to legitimize these practices."